Salvation 72626842
by LunaWolfAngel
Summary: While hunting, Daryl discovers a girl and her dog, both with unnatural golden eyes. They join the Atlanta group, but the survivors soon find out that they are hiding dangerous secrets. Secrets that could change the fate of the world forever. RATED T FOR GORE Daryl/OC and Carl/OC in later chapters.
1. Zombies and Explosions

I was sitting on the cot in my 'room', waiting for the familiar metal door to open, and the masked guards to lead me away to the testing rooms.

You see, I live in a place called 'Area 52'. No, not Area 51 where all the aliens are, Area 52. The people here don't specialize in aliens, we do something codenamed 'Salvation Project'.

Well, I shouldn't say some_thing_, but rather some _one_. I'm that person.

My full name- or rather number- is Salvation Project Experiment 72626842. My only family is my dad, but everyone calls him Dr. Jones. Even me. After I was born, I was taken away from my mother, to be in Salvation Project.

Just about every day there I was injected with multiple drugs, bitten by zombies, and then went through obstacle courses that took hours upon hours to complete.

I bet your wondering why I had to do this. You see, the people at Area 52 new, they _new _somehow, that there would be a zombie apocalypse, and it was their job to design a new race of people that could continue on, called 'Salvations'. They have only succeeded in creating one. And that's me.

I hate the people of Area 52. How could they completely give up on their own species? Instead of creating a new race, they should be trying to save their own by getting ready for the zombies! Idiots.

So anyways, for the past 22 years of my life I have been holed up in a giant underground building, being bitten by walkers literally every single day. Life sucks sometimes.

But today was different. When the door opened, the guards weren't there. In there place, was a zombie. It looked at me with its diluted, foggy eyes, and automatically started to stumble in my direction. I sat up from the cot, and kicked it onto its back. I proceeded to bash its head in, getting my foot and loose white pants covered in blood and brains. Ick.

I peered around the door, and saw not one person in the grey- painted hallway. This wasn't _right_, the hall were always, _always_ filled with staff and guards.

Then, my sensitive ears picked up some sound. It was shuffling, and not very far away.

Suddenly, from around the corner came a herd of zombies. And when I saw who they were, I felt like screaming with joy. The herd was the staff and guard. Area 52 had been overrun. The apocalypse was here!s The only reason why I couldn't hear it was because my room was soundproof, I guess so I couldn't hear any plans the staff had for me the next to day.

I was finally, _finally _free! No more tests, no more forced zombie-bites, no more torturous obstacle courses. No more Dr. Jones!

Then, I remembered where I was. The zombies had easily spotted me, as I was the only person in the hallway. Damn.

Wait a second, why was I worried? I'm me! Trained to take on twice as many walkers as these ones!

And so, about two minutes later, I opened up the un-locked door to my room, to find that the hallways where now a lovely shade of zombie blood. Thank god the guards here at Area 52 carry grenades on their belts!

"Woohoo! Freedom! Take that Dr. Jones! This is what you get when you mess with me! Hahahaha! Yeah!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I then skipped down the halls, running into a few more smaller herds, but throwing some leftover grenades at them which splattered zombie all over the place, including me. I now smelt of rotting flesh and was now sporting gut-covered clothes.

Today was a good day.

**Alright, I hate to be mean, but I've already written the next three chapters and I'm working on the fourth, and the third has over 1,000 words, and I won't post them unless I get at least 1 review. 1 review, and all the rest of the chapters are up. Okay? Now… REVIEW! I like pie :3**


	2. I Blow Up a Top-Secret Base

Two hours later, I had taken my first hot shower _ever _(I totally love whoever invented water-heater-thingies. They rock! And fuck you Dr. Jones, for always making me take two-minute long _very cold_ showers. Experimental drug testing my ass), eaten about five pies from the main kitchen, raided the women's sleeping quarters and had changed into a black tank-top, camouflage- green shorts over grey leggings to cover up the bite scars on my legs, and light brown over-the elbow fingerless gloves for the ones on my arms and the black tattoo that read: SALVATION PROJECT EXPERIMENT 72626842 in thick black letters and numbers, along with beat-up brown hiking boots. I also got to brush my long, straight dark brown hair, which I barely ever got to do. It was a nice change from the baggy white shirt and pants that I was accustomed to weraring.

Anyways, I also decided that I hate Area 52 _so much_ that I'm going to blow it up. Yay! I freakin' LOVE explosions! Mwahahaha! Sorry 'boout that, being raised in a giant torture chamber might have made me a bit coo-coo. Oh well!

I soon found where the staff at Area 52 kept their cars, and settled on a big black jeep. Then I got around 10 or so plastic fuel tanks, and got as much gas that I could out of the cars, and put the tanks in the back of my jeep. Afterwards I raided the kitchen (again) and got some canned food and packages of water bottles, and a few other things. Like pie. I love pie.

Then I wondered around looking for weapons, and I hit the jackpot.

I opened up a door at the end of one of the hallways, and I seriously almost fainted. In the room, there was just about every weapon _ever_. So I did what any giddy girl would do. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I then ran around the room like mad until I found some duffle bags stacked up in the corner.

I took as many as I could, and started stuffing them with guns, crossbows, ammo, arrows, knives, grenades. The bags were filled to the brim, and I had a lot of trouble closing them. When I had finished with the bags, I strapped a few knives and handguns to my belt and legs.

Then I faced a very hard question: how was I going to get all this stuff to the jeep? Oh wait a second, this is so simple! Drive the jeep through the hallways!

Around forty minutes later, I had put all the bags on the jeep, and had lain a trail of dynamite and grenades all around the complex.

I reached the parking garage again, and followed the exit to the surface.

When I drove out into the warm sunlight, for the first time in more than 26 years, my eyes started to hurt. A lot. Being in the dark and always seeing artificial light can do that to a person.

I checked my surroundings. I had just come out of the mouth of a cave, and was driving on a smooth concrete road that was painted to look like dirt. Surrounding me was a forest, and the air was quite hot, and I was glad that I had chosen to wear light cloths.

Now, there was one final thing to do to make this the best day ever. Giant explosion!

I cackled like a maniac as I fished a stick of dynamite out of one of the duffle bags, grabbed a match from my pocket, and lit the fuse. The dynamite rolled into the cave, and I floored it.


	3. Shady and Samantha

"Woo hoo! Oh yeah! I rule!" I cheered to myself as I sped down an empty highway. Question: Are you supposed to drive on the left, right, or middle side of the road? Because the only thing that stupid Professor Benkins (this really mean evil guy at Area 52 who was assigned to teach me about the oustside world for when the Salvations would take over. He was a total nerd) taught me about cars was how to drive them, not which side of the road to drive on! Oh well, it's not like anyone was on the road that could crash into me.

After a few hours, I got pretty board, and I started to shuffle through one of the duffle bags that I had stuffed a bunch of clothes in, thinking that maybe someone had left some sort of forgotten item in their pocket.

My hand hit a cool metal object, and I brought it out into the light. I observed it quickly, trying not to let my eyes of the road for to long, in fear that I may crash, and quickly concluded that it was an iPhone 5.

I smirked to myself, and stopped the car in the middle of the road. Benkins had taught me about all the latest technology, and I remembered that to turn on an iPhone you had to press the bottom button with the square in it. I did so, and I was quite happy to see that there wasn't any passcode lock on it. There were many apps on the phone, every single page was filled with folders, to put the apps in. I screwed around on it for a little while, and finally clicked on the music app. From everything else on the phone, I wasn't surprised to see that it had a lot of songs on it. Trust me when I say a lot. I closed my eyes, and clicked on a random song. Misery Business by Paramore came on, and after a while, I figured out the chorus, and sang a long.

_I'm in the business of misery,_

_Let's take it from the top._

_She's got a body like an hourglass, it's ticking like a clock._

_It's a matter of time before we all run out,_

_When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth._

_I waited eight long months,_

_She finally set him free._

_I told him I couldn't lie he was the only one for me._

_Two weeks and we caught on fire,_

_She's got it out for me,_

_But I wear the biggest smile._

_Whoa, i never meant to brag._

_But I got him where I want him now._

_Whoa, it was never my intention to brag_

_To steal it all away from you now._

_But God does it feel so good,_

_Cause I got him where I want him now._

_And if you could then you know you would._

_'Cause God it just feels so..._

_It just feels so good._

_Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change._

_Once a whore you're nothing more, I'm sorry, that'll never change._

_And about forgiveness, we're both supposed to have exchanged._

_I'm sorry honey, but I passed it up, now look this way._

_Well there's a million other girls who do it just like you._

_Looking as innocent as possible to get to who,_

_They want and what they like it's easy if you do it right._

_Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!_

_Whoa, i never meant brag_

_But I got him where I want him now._

_Whoa, it was never my intention to brag_

_To steal it all away from you now._

_But God does it feel so good,_

_'Cause I got him where I want him right now._

_And if you could then you know you would._

_'Cause God it just feels so..._

_It just feels so good._

_I watched his wildest dreams come true_

_Not one of them involving you_

_Just watch my wildest dreams come true_

_Not one of them involving..._

_Whoa, i never meant to brag_

_But I got him where I want him now._

_Whoa, i never meant to brag_

_But I got him where I want him now._

_Whoa, it was never my intention to brag_

_To steal it all away from you now._

_But God does it feel so good,_

_'Cause I got him where I want him now._

_And if you could then you know you would._

_'Cause God it just feels so..._

_It just feels so good._

When the song finished I was laughing and smiling. This was most definitely the best day ever.

I kept driving, and I saw tall figures in the distance. I quickly realized that they were five zombies trying to get to something in an abandoned car.

I smiled to myself. Time to kick some ass.

I drove my car up to them, and hopped out with my crossbow in hand. The zombies turned to face me, and I grimaced slightly at their mangles faces covered in rotting flesh. I quickly shot the five of them in their heads, and pulled the arrows from their skulls.

I walked up to the red mini van that held what ever the zombies were trying to get to, and pulled the door open.

I was quickly tackled to the ground by a large creature that stated to lick my face. I pushed it off and hopped up to my feet.

Standing before me was a large black male German Sheppard. He sat at my feet, looking at me with complete and utter loyalty shining in his big dark eyes. I kneeled down to his height,

"Hey there, boy. Good thing I came along, or else those zombies would have eaten you."

The dog barked in response and licked my pale white face. I stood up, and started walking towards my vehicle. The dog started to whine, and I turned him,

"Come here, boy. You can come with me, I'm not gunna let you get eaten by some stupid zombies." I said with a smile on my face.

The dog seemed to know what I meant, and he happily jumped into the jeep. It was a little creepy how he could almost understand what I said, but I didn't care.

I got into my car, and drove off.

"Hmm.. I can't just call you 'boy', you need a proper name, don't you?" I said to my furry companion who sat in the seat next to me on one of the duffle bags. Don't worry, it was the one that had my clothes in it, not the grenades. I think.

Anyways, the German Sheppard barked in response to my statement , and I started listing off random names,

"Okay lets see… Max, Rudy, Lassie, Rin-Tin-Tin, Magical Butterfly Fairy Sparkle Dust? No, just kidding! Uh, Dane, Lake, oh wait! I got it! Shady! Do you like that name?" I questioned the shadow-colored dog. He yipped happily, and licked my face, which made me giggle a bit.

"Alright, Shady it is then. Well Shady, my name is Salvation Project Experiment 72626842," frowned at my name. In fact, it wasn't even a name, it was a number, a memory, a nightmare, that I refused to live with any longer. I turned to Shady, and smirked,

"Actually, Shady, I'm changing my name. From now on, I refuse to ever be called a number. My name is Samantha."

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	4. I Turn My Dog Into a New Species

It had been three weeks since I had escaped Area 52, and met Shady. So far we had gone on super fun zombie-killing sprees in small towns, we only had a minor complication being that Shady had been nipped by one of the zombies we were killing.

Now I bet your thinking: MINOR COMPLICATION?! Your beloved companion was bitten by a freaking flesh eating monster and now in less than eight hours he's going o come back to life and eat your face off!

Well, if I were a human, then yeah, he would be dead. And then alive again, but I'm not human, am I?

The scientists at Area 52 made it so that I could turn any _living _thing into a Salvation, so zombies are off limits.

Turning things into Salvations is quite simple, I just have to give whatever I'm turning some of my DNA.

But the thing is, it had never worked before, and I was very doubtful that it would work now. But I could at least try, right?

I was already bleeding from where a zombie had scratched me on my arm, and I let some of my blood drip onto Shady's bite.

As soon as the blood touched Shady's wound, he started twitching violently and yelping in pain.

"Shush, Shady. Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. Sammy's here, I won't let anything happen to you. There, there, it's going to be okay," I whispered as I pet is soft black coat.

Shady seemed to understand what I meant, and calmed down a bit, but he still shook and yelped and shut his eyes tight in pain.

About ten minutes later, his shaking came to a stop. I bit my lip, this was the moment of truth.

Shady slowly opened his eyes, and I gasped. They were no longer the dark molten chocolate color they had been before. Instead, they were a stunning golden-yellow, like mine.

He barked loudly, and started licking my face like mad, while his shaggy black tail whipped rapidly back and forth. I laughed, and pushed him off.

His force was twice as powerful as before, as Salvations doubled whatever your previous species physical limits were.

I hugged Shady, then stood up again and beckoning my companion to follow,

"Come on, Shady. We still have to search the town for supplies, you can test out your strengths on the way," I told my furry friend.

He barked in agreement, and proceeded to speed down the road that lead into the small town like a bullet.

I smiled, and started to race him. He won, but in all fairness most dogs are faster than humans _and _he got a head start.

Anyways, we reached the town, and found many mangled bodies and zombies just about everywhere. I shot most of them with my crossbow, and Shady enjoyed being able to rip them apart without having to worry about turning into one of them if he got bit.

We found a grocery store and I got some canned food, water, and the highest quality dog food I could find. I even found a hardware store that sold guns and ammo. It's not like I needed anymore, but you could never be too careful.

We hopped in the jeep, and left the town. I still have no idea where on the road you drive! Is it left, right, or middle? God, this is so confusing!

**Review please! :)**


	5. Hunt

**Thank you for all the great reviews! You make me so happy! :) Also, solar-chargers are real, my dad has one. It's really cool. **

Shady and I were driving on the highway, and I have decided it doesn't matter what side of the road I'm driving on, as long as it's the road.

I was listening to music on the iPhone again, while it was plugged into this thing called a solar-charger. It looks like a normal charger, but where the wire that plugs into the socket is it's replaced with a small rectangle box, about three inches long that has a little solar panel on top of it.

Shady was enjoying him self, he was in the front passenger seat with his head out the window and his tong lolling out of his mouth. I found it completely adorable.

Also, I have another question about driving: I keep seeing all these signs that have numbers on them, but I don't really know what the writing by them says because I'm just flooring the jeep. I think one of them had 'mph' on them, next to a 20, but as I said before, I'm going about 100 miles. Whatever, the signs probably aren't important.

On either side of the highway was a thick forest, and I started to think. I wondered if Shady could hunt…

I stopped the car, not bothering to pull over.

"Come on Shady, let's see if you can get us a meal," I said as we got out of the car with my crossbow slung over my shoulder.

I was wearing the same outfit from the day I escaped Area 52, the only difference was that I wasn't wearing the long string of bullets around me. Instead, there was a pair of goggles dangling around my neck. They came in useful when killing zombies, because I'm pretty sure no one like zombie brains in their eyes. I had to learn that one the hard way.

Shady and I headed in to the dark woods, my crossbow at the ready, in place to kill anything that moved.

We walked for an hour or two, I wasn't worried that we would get lost, as Shady could just track our scent back to the car.

Shady suddenly stopped in his tracks, and growled low in his throat, head pointed towards some low bushes.

I got low to the ground, and crawled silently to the brush, Shady right next to me. I parted the bushes, to reveal a small stream with a young buck drinking from it.

I smiled, and took careful aim with my crossbow, lining up the shot with the deer's head.

Suddenly, out of nowhere and arrow whooshed through the air, planting itself in the unsuspecting animal's flank.

The deer took almost no time at all to run away limping, still quite fast, despite it being wounded.

"Shady, eveirter!" I yelled to the dog. I was not giving up this hunt.

We ran through the woods with unnatural speed, trees and plants flashing by, with only one thing on our minds: end the hunt.

Shady and I flanked the deer, me on its left, Shady on the right.

"Shady, pmub edis!" I commanded.

At the same time, we smashed our bodies into the deer's sides, and it fell to the ground on its bad leg, logging the arrow deeper.

I pulled out one of the knives from its sheath on my thigh, and stabbed the deer in the heart, ending its life.

Shady and I were so excited about our first kill, that we didn't notice anyone behind us, until I felt the tip of an arrow at the back of my head,

"That's _my _deer."

**Oooh! Cliffy! Review please. It makes me happy :3**


	6. Daryl Dixon

**Hey guys! I'm back! Thank you for all the awesome reviews! Also I have a little challenge: try to figure out Samantha's command code for Shady, and you shall be dubbed as awesome in my world. Also, VioletWolf33 is awesome. Okay? Now, on with the story!**

"Shady, elkcat!" I whispered.

The Salvation dog spun around, and pounced on the person behind me.

"Whoa!" the person shouted as Shady landed on him.

I pulled out one of my knives, and turned around.

**Daryl POV**

"Whoa!" I shouted as a big black dog tackled me to the ground. It growled at me, and its lips pulled back to reveal sharp white fangs.

I reached for my crossbow, which I had dropped when the dog jumped on me, but it was kicked away by who ever got my deer.

I looked up to see the person whose dog attacked me.

It was a girl who looked to be in her 20's, with long dark brown hair, and the palest skin I had ever seen, as if she had never been outside. But the strangest trait she had were her eyes. They were an unnatural golden- yellow color, and they set me on edge as she glared at me.

"So, this is your deer?" she questioned me with a blank expression on her face.

"Yeah, I shot it, but then it ran 'way," I answered to her.

"How badly do you need the it?" asked the girl.

I thought back to everyone at camp, the two Grimes, Morales, Carol, Ed, and Sophia, along with Amy, Andrea, Dale, Shane, Glenn, and Merle.

"We 'ave some families back at camp," I responded.

"If I let you up, and you try to attack me, I'll break every bone in your body, and laugh as the zombies come and eat your guts out as you scream and wither in pain. Then once they finish, I will use your bones as chew toys for my dog. Got it?" She told me with a glare on her face.

I nodded, a bit disturbed at her threat.

"Shady, teg ffo," she commanded, and the large animal on me jumped to her side, but still kept a careful eye on me as I stood up.

The girl kneeled down and handed me my crossbow. I looked it over to make sure it wasn't damaged from when she shoved it away. Luckily, there wasn't a single dent on it.

"My name is Samantha, and this is Shady. Who are you?" the girl asked me.

I looked up at her, "Name's Daryl Dixon. You got a last name?"

"Jones," she said automatically, but then looked like she wanted to slap herself. "W-well, I mean, Jones was my father's name. I go by my mother's which was, uh, James," she stuttered.

I nodded, and began to pick up the deer, but she stopped me,

"Hey, if you want I can drive you back to your camp. I have my car parked about three miles from here. It's the least I could do after killing your deer," she offered.

I thought about it. The deer was pretty heavy, at least three hundred pounds, and it had taken me three days to get to this point in my hunt. I shrugged my shoulders,

"Sure," I answered.

She smiled, "Do you want me to help you carry the deer?"

I glared at her, did she think I was weak?

"I can pull my own weight," I snapped at her. She looked a bit hurt, but I quickly brushed it off, it's not like I cared.

The deer was heavier than I thought it would be, but I managed.

We didn't talk as we trekked through the forest. The only sound were our footfalls.

We eventually reached the road after a few hours of hiking. Samantha's car was a black jeep, that was filled with duffle bags.

"You can put your deer in the back," Samantha said as she popped the trunk, revealing even more duffle bags. She shoved them all to the side, making an empty space for the deer to be set down.

I relieved myself o the weight the deer was putting on me and rolled it off my shoulders to put it in the back of the car. After I walked around to the front passenger side of the jeep, and opened up the door, to find Shady in the seat.

The dog didn't seem to have any intention of moving, luckily Samantha noticed, and spoke to her pet,

"Shady kcab taes," the animal promptly hopped in the back and got comfortable while Samantha rolled down all the windows.

And then she started driving.

She must've been flooring it the whole time, and she was swerving and hitting just about every single pothole without even trying. This girl was most definitely the worst driver I had ever seen.

"So, Daryl, which way is your camp?" she asked, as if everything was completely normal, even though she was breaking the speed limit by about fifty miles.

"Uh, it's a bit hard to get to, why don't ya let me drive?" I asked. I was pretty sure that if I drove, we would be less likely to get in an accident. And that was saying something, because we were the only car on the road.

But, Samantha just smiled, "No, don't worry, it's okay. Just tell me where it is, and we can get there, okay?"

I shook my head, "No, I think it might be better if I drove, like I said, it's a bit hard to get to," normally, I wouldn't care who was driving, but Samantha was the exception.

She looked at me suspiciously, "No, I'll drive. Just tell me where to go."

I sighed, this girl was stubborn, "Turn left here."

I just about lost my lunch.

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	7. A Bag of Weapons

**Congratulations ****fangymen lover**** for figuring out how Samantha communicates with Shady! **_**IMPORTANT: **_**what kind of animal do you think best describes Andrea, Dale, Carl, Shane, and Ricks personality? I will be using the answers some where in chapter 8 or 9. Thank you!**

**Samantha POV**

I drove the jeep up a long dirt road, and I saw the camp. There were several cars all parked around a big RV, which was just about twenty feet away from a fire pit surrounded by logs, chairs, and even a ripped-out car seat. A little ways from all of this were a collection of several tents, all spaced out so that the survivors may have privacy from each other. There were people milling around doing chores and such, but they all stopped when I came up the road.

I parked the jeep a close, but not to close to the other cars, and then the people drew their guns.

"Step out of your vehicle! We don't want any trouble!" commanded a man with short, dark curly hair who put himself in front of the group. This seemed to position himself as their leader, or higher ranking survivors, or just bold and stupid. Either way, Daryl and I came out of the car.

"Ya can all lower ya guns, it's just me," Daryl spoke confidently.

This seemed to put the other survivors a bit more at ease, but they still had their guns pointed at me. I put my hands up, a signal of surrender,

"Uh, hi, I'm Samantha James-"

"State your business here," the guy in front said, cutting me off.

I frowned, maybe if he didn't cut people off he would get things done faster, but I answered his question anyways,

"I was hunting and I killed the deer he had been hunting," I said calmly, motioning to Daryl, who was standing next to me, "So I gave him a ride back as my way of saying sorry. The deer is in the back of my car if you want to get it."

"She's tellin' the truth, ya can put ya guns down," Daryl told the survivors.

The guy in front sighed, and put his gun into the holster on his belt.

I smirked, "Thank you."

I led Daryl and the curly- haired man to the back of my jeep, just in time to.

When I opened the trunk, I found Shady about to take out a big bite of the deer's throat.

"Shady! What are you doing?! That's not out deer!" I yelled at him. He whined, and flipped over onto his back, surrendering. His eyes seemed to get really big and glassy, shining in sadness. He looked like Bambi (I watched the movie on my phone). I sighed, and rubbed the big dog's stomach with my gloved hands.

"Alright, I forgive you. You're just so cute!" I told him and kissed his furry head. He jumped up, putting his paws on my shoulders, and licked face.

"Mom! Look! She has a wolf!"

I turned around, and saw a boy who looked to be about twelve, with a tall thin woman behind him. I guessed it was the boy who spoke, and the woman was his mother.

"Actually, he's a German Sheppard, but he looks like a wolf, doesn't he?" I said with I smile, "You can pet him if you want, he's quite friendly."

The boy looked at his mom, silently asking for permission. She nodded, and he smiled. The kid stuck out his hand for Shady to smell it, and when the black dog decided he liked him, the boy was covered in doggy kisses.

The boy's mother stuck out her hand,

"Hi, my name is Lori Grimes, I'm Carl's mom," she said to me. I shook her hand,

"As you know, I'm Samantha James. But you can call me Sam, or Sammy, or Samantha. Whatever floats your boat!" I ended with a laugh.

Lori smiled at me, and we watched as Daryl and the other man whose name I _still _don't know unload the deer from the car while Carl, Shady, and some other kids who I hadn't seen before play.

"Samantha, if you don't mind me asking, what are in all those bags you have?" Lori questioned, pointing to the duffles. There were at least fifteen, and that was only the back. I smiled,

"Well, one of them has my clothes in it. The others, well, see for yourself," I told the Grimes mother, motioning to the bags.

She looked a bit unsure at first, but nonetheless, she walked over to the back of the car, and carefully selecting one of the bags. She unzipped the top, and gasped,

"Oh my god! Samantha, where did you get these?" she questioned, rather loudly which attracted much attention from the group. The survivors walked over to my car again, the curly haired guy looking quite worried,

"Lori, what is it?" he asked, glancing at me suspiciously. Sending me a look that I'm pretty sure meant, _'If you have done something to hurt Lori I will tear you limb from limb.'_

"Shane, look what she has!" Lori exclaimed to the man whose name I have FINALLY figured out (cheers like a maniac in brain). Everyone huddled around, and there mouths dropped open like they had been filled with bricks.

The bag they were looking in was filled to the brim with all different kinds of handguns and ammo. If you were a good shot, and you had this bag's contents you could kill a herd of zombies.

"Wher'd ya get this? Did you rob an army base or sumthin'?" Daryl said in his Southern Drawl as he eyed the duffle.

I glared at him,

"Okay, first of all, everyone in the base was turned into a zombie, and it's not like I was going to let all those weapons go to waste! And it's not like anyone was going to miss them! So I took them. Problem?" I asked the hunter with a frown.

An old man with a white beard and old fishing hat's eyes widened even more, if that was even possible, and spoke to me,

"You seriously robbed an army base?"

I sighed, and through my arms up in the air,

"Yes, I got the weapons from an army base, but I did not _rob_ from it! Anyways, you guys can keep the weapons if you want, I don't want to over stay my welcome," I told the group as I handed Shane the bag. I turned around, with Shady trailing at my heels.

"Wait, Samantha, you can't go out there, it's to dangerous!" Lori said with a worried tone in her voice.

"Don't worry, Lori, I've been on my own for a while now, I'll be fine," I told her with a soft smile in my face.

She shook her head stubbornly,

"No, you could get killed. Please, Samantha, why don't you join our group? I mean, if it's al right with the others, of course."

I looked at Lori, the expression on her face was told me that she was truly worried for me, afraid of what would happen to me outside the camp. It was all very strange, because no one had ever cared about me before, besides Shady. Everyone else just wanted me to be the ultimate species to survive the apocalypse, not caring if I have very nearly died on several occasions, or cried myself to sleep almost every night until the only emotions I felt were hate and sadness.

"I'm fine with her staying, I don't see why we would have to put an innocent person back out in that horrible world all alone," the man with the fishing hat said to the group.

"I'm fine with her being her, too," a woman with a short grey pixie- cut told the others with a soft voice.

Quickly, everyone agreed that I could stay.

I was overwhelmingly happy. I was part of a group that actually wanted me, for who I was, not because I was going to be the girl who turned the human race into Salvations and save the world from flesh eating monsters (I hate you Dr. Jones. You're my own father, and yet I love pie more than you.).

**Review please! :D And don't forget about the animal personality thing that I mentioned at the top, I need your input for the following chapter/s!**


	8. Blood Bath

_**IMPORTANT:**_** Your ideas for what animal best describes Andrea, Dale, Carl, Shane, and Rick's personality will be used next chapter.**** Now, onto the story!**

'_WHOO WHOO WHOO WHOO WHOO…' _

"What the hell is that?" I yelled over the noise.

"It sounds like a car alarm! And if it doesn't stop it will attract walkers!" Dale shouted back to me.

Soon, the whole camp was gathered at the edge of the camp, and we watched as a red sports car, which seemed to be where the car alarm was coming from, followed by a white van.

The cars came up the road, and as soon as the leading car was parked, Shane stomped up to it and started yelling at the driver who was a young Korean man, probably in his early twenties.

"Shut that thing off! You'll kill us all!" Shane practically screamed.

"I don't know how!" yelled the Korean man.

The ex-cop popped the hood of the car, and yanked out the battery, which was followed the silence.

It was then that people started to come out of the van. I saw that the Morales family were now complete, now that their father and husband had returned, and Amy was reunited with her big sister, Andrea. I figured out that the Korean man's name was Glenn, and along with that was a dark- skinned man named T-Dog.

Shady seemed a little over whelmed about all the new people, but I comforted him by saying,

"Shady, eb mlac. Yeth era sdneirf," I then nuzzled me with his dark wet nose, and leaned against my side a little bit.

"How did you get out of there?" Miranda, Morales wife questioned him, teary-eyed.

"New guy, we would've been eaten if it weren't for him. He's a cop, like you" responded Glenn as he motioned towards Shane.

"Hey, helicopter boy!" Morales shouted, "Come say hello."

The last person, a tall man in a police uniform, stepped out from behind the van.

There was stunned silence from Shane, Lori, and Carl, which was broken by a scream of,

"DAD!" and Carl ran into the man's arms.

I couldn't believe it. I had been told that Rick was in a coma when the walkers started coming, and Shane had gone to the hospital when the army came when things got really serious. Shane had gone to the hospital, and checked on Rick, but the sheriff was dead, and all Shane could do was block the door with an empty bed, before leaving for Altanta (I liked to call it 'City Deathtrap' now).

But Rick was _alive_. I was completely amazed, and all I could do was look at Rick, Carl, and Lori, as they all did that 'family sandwich thing', with Carl smooshed between Rick and Lori as they hugged. It looked like Carl might've had some trouble breathing, but I honestly think he didn't care.

We all sat around a campfire that Dale had made in the fire pit by the RV, all laughing and telling stories.

Rick told us of how he had found Lori and Carl, and I must say I was quite amazed when he came to the part where he rubbed zombie-guts on himself and Glenn so that they could get the cars and drive back to the camp.

"That reminds me, Samantha, do you mind telling us about how you go here? I mean, before you met Daryl," Dale asked me. Everyone looked at me expectantly.

I knew that I had to say something, if I didn't they would get suspicious. I sighed, and began,

"Well, my mom died when I was just a baby, so I lived with my dad, who was a total workaholic. So much that we actually lived there. He worked at the army base where I got all the weapons, so I got my own room and stuff, and I private tutor. But I never saw my dad that much. Maybe once a week, if I was lucky. In fact, we were so disconnected that I called him Dr. Jones, like the rest of his coworkers. We were like strangers that distantly knew each other.

Pretty soon, the zombies- or walkers- as you call them, turned everyone at the base into monsters, but I took out one of the security guards, and found that he had a grenade and so I used it to blow up the herd. After that I raided the base, got one of the staff's cars, and left.

A few days later, I came across Shady, who was hiding in a car from some walkers who were trying to eat him. I saved him, and we just drove around for a few weeks until I decided to try hunting, and that was when we accidently killed the deer Daryl was hunting, and I guess you know the rest of the story from there," I finished.

Lori looked at me sadly,

"Did you really have that bad of a relationship with your dad?"

I just shrugged,

"Whatever, it's not like I cared about him or anything. You guys are way cooler anyways," I said with a playful smirk. This aroused a few laughs from the survivors, and some licks form Shady.

Yes, I most definitely liked my new group.

The sky was dark, and the full moon had risen, and shone moonlight on my already pale skin, making it look like liquid pearl. Shady trotted along by my side, his tail swishing through the air.

The two of us were headed down to the quarry for a bath in the cool waters. Shady was quite greasy, and had I think he had rolled in some sort of animal excrements when my back was turned. Not to mention I had some deer blood in my hair from when I first met Daryl (Curse you, itchy head and bloody hands!).

I had taken off all the weapons that I usually had on me, and traded in my hiking boot for some black flip-flops, and tucked under my arm were my PJs, which consisted of a light blue tank- top and some white fabric shorts.

We soon reached the lake at the bottom of the quarry, and I wandered around on the shore by the water, until I reached a small area surrounded by several large boulders where I could store my clothes.

I took off the clothes I had been wearing that day, until all I had left on was my black underwear and bra.

I wasn't too worried about anyone seeing me naked, as the only one who would come down here this late would be Daryl, but he had gone on another hunting trip.

I waded into the cool dark water with Shady following me silently. When the water got to be just above my stomach, I dove in all the way, sending small rippling waves through the lake.

I swam several feet under the water, going in deeper and deeper. I saw a school of little fish swimming around. They looked so peaceful, until Shady rushed through their group, scattering them throughout the inky waters. I laughed, sending bubbles to the surface.

Feeling oxygen beginning to dwindle in my lungs, I swam to the surface with my faithful dog. We broke the surface, and I giggled, seeing that it looked like Shady resembled a golden-eyed seal rather than a dog.

I dove down into the depths again, and that's when it happened.

A scream tore through my body, but the thick water muffled it. Ruby red blood came rushing out of my nose, ears, eyes, mouth, and every pore in my body, turning the once clear water crimson. I felt stinging, burning, and aching, all pounding at my small body. My white flesh ripped open, adding more pain to my body as I screamed and withered in agony beneath the surface of the lake. I felt only pain and fear, and saw only red.

And then the memories came.

_Blood everywhere, flowing until I was empty._

_Doctors through the window in the room, studying me as I screamed in horrid agony._

_Worried scientists, discussing how this would effect their plan for the next species. _

_Blood-soaked clothes sticking to my frail under-nourished body. _

_The next day, strapped to a cold metal table as I was force-fed various pills. _

They took away my memories.

**Please review! And tell me what animals Dale, Carl, Rick, Shane, and Andrea should be! It will help me write the story faster if you even give me just one idea. Thank you for your support! **


	9. The Sketches

**Hi guys! I would like to thank ****Goldenfightergirl****, ****fangymen lover****, and ****Theta-McBride ****for the ideas. They helped me so much! Thank you!**

I opened my eyes, to meet a dark black nose that belonged to none other than Shady. I slowly sat, up, and looked at my surroundings. I was back by the rocks where I put my clothes…in my underwear.

I quickly sat up, and picked up the black shirt that I had been wearing the other day and used it to brush myself off before putting on my pajamas.

I looked up at the sky, seeing that it was still dark out and guessing that it must be somewhere between three and four in the morning.

I began to think about what I had discovered- or rediscovered- last night. Every month I would rapidly lose all of my blood, and then my body would quickly make more blood to replace it. If my body always had new, healthy fresh blood then this means I would live longer and look longer than the average human. But there was another reason why my body did this; a Salvation doubles everything a human can do- including lifespan. So this was actually _good_ for me. But this also means that I will out-live everyone I know and love (the new group), unless I turned them into Salvations. But if I did this, they would bleed out like me, or nothing would happen and they'd still be human, or even worse, they'd die. So they get hurt either way.

I looked up, to realize that I was back at camp, and quickly headed to my tent; which had been set up a bit farther away from everyone else's. I guess I wasn't used to this many people who actually liked me, and didn't wake me up at four AM to see how bulletproof I was _without_ a Kevlar jacket.

I unzipped the tent opening, letting Shady get in first, before getting in myself. My sleeping bag was extra big and fluffy, so Shady and I could both easily fit inside it. I lay down, and did my best to fall asleep, as easily as I could with millions of questions and decisions swimming through my head.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Hey, Dale, what's this?" I asked the old man as I held something that looked like a notepad, but about ten times bigger that I had found in the RV while getting some water.

"That, Sammy, is a drawing pad. You can have it if you'd like, I never used it," he responded with a smile from his position on top of the RV.

My eyes widened. I remembered back at Area 52 while taking a test on bio-mechanics, I had doodled little pictures of zombies in the corners of my paper, which seemed to help me concentrate.

Afterwards, Benkins used a special remote that sent an electrical current to the chip in the back of my neck that worked as a taser. But it was _inside _me. I was told not to draw again unless I had permission.

Later that day as I was being led to the obstacle course, I overheard Benkins talking to one of the staff, who saying that I was one of the most amazing artists he had ever seen, and that I was a prodigy in art, ad could easily win any art competition, and I was only five years old. And yeah, they tasered a five year old, and I also still have that chip in the back of my neck.

"OhmygoshthankyousomuchDale!" I screamed before running away to find those colored pencils I had seen in the jeep…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Andrea! Amy! Could you come over here for a second?" I shouted to the two sisters from the fire pit.

"What can we help you with, Samantha?" Andrea asked me when she and Amy got to the 'pit.

"Well, I was wondering if you two could just sit across from me and I could sketch you? It wouldn't take more than half an hour, I'm really fast!" I told them.

"I'm fine with it!" Amy said excitedly.

"Sure, take as long as you want," the older sister replied.

I clapped my hands together, like a giddy child,

"Thank you! I've never tried to sketch someone before!"

Andrea and Amy at across from me on a log, and I began to draw. Thin lines, overlap. Shade the eye, catch the shimmer. Long, smooth strokes. Curve the ears, color over…

"Done!" I told the two proudly.

Amy sat up and stretched,

"Ah, much better. Your muscles get cramped after a while!" she said to no one in particular.

"May we see the picture?" Andre asked as she walked over to me.

I nodded, and handed the sketchpad to the elder sibling.

As they looked, their eyes widened.

"Samantha, this- this is amazing!" Amy exclaimed, bringing a smile to my _still _snow-white lips.

Andrea nodded in agreement,

"Yes, it is very amazing, but I thought you were sketching us?"

The drawing pad was handed back to me, and I looked over the picture.

I had sketched and colored a light-feathered eagle, sitting protectively over a small, silvery grey rabbit, both on top a fallen log.

"Well you see, I drew you, but not you at the same time. Basically what animal best interprets you depending on looks and personality, you get it?" I questioned.

They nodded, and I was suddenly assaulted by a fluffy black dog.

"Shady!" I giggled as the Salvation licked my face lovingly.

"Hi Sammy!" Carl said as he walked over to the fire pit.

"Hey Kid, whatchya' doing?" I asked the Grimes child as I sat up from the dirt.

"That's what I was going to ask you," he responded.

I laughed,

"Go get your parents, and I'll show you, okay?"

Carl barely had any time to nod before running off to go find his mom and dad. What can I say, children are driven by curiosity.

As I waited for Carl to return, I flipped to the next page in the sketchbook, and reorganized all the pencils.

"Hey Sammy! I'm Back!"

I looked up to see Carl being followed by Rick and Lori, both looking a bit confused.

"Okay, I just need you guys to sit on that log, and we can begin. You can talk if you want, just don't move around to much, okay?"

"So you're going to sketch us?" Lori asked. It was actually more of an answer than a question.

I nodded, and began sketching…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Two hours later, I had pictured Lori, Rick, and Carl as an elegant egret, brave lion, and young tiger cub. I transformed Carol and Sophia into a gentle doe and shy kitten, Dale into a wise owl, Glenn into an inquisitive ring-tailed-lemur, T-Dog into a big grizzly bear, and Shane into a large slithering boa.

By the time I was finished, it was dinnertime, and everyone was sitting around the campfire looking over my drawings. They all said that they couldn't believe I had drawn these, and that they seemed so life-like it was a bit disturbing.

They all agreed that their favorite one was of Shady, because I had made him human.

I had made to look about fifteen or sixteen, with tan skin and shaggy black hair that reached his shoulders, framing his face so that it made his bright golden eyes pop out even more. He wore a dark grey t-shirt, showing off strong muscles, and black jeans with dark green, slightly dirty converse.

We laughed, and told more stories until it was at least ten at night. We put the fire out, and all headed to our tents.

I snuggled down into my sleeping bag with Shady, and slept.

**If you're wondering why I didn't have Samantha draw Ed, it's because he's my least favorite character and I didn't feel that he deserved that recognition. Daryl will be returning in the next chapter! :D**


	10. Daryl Returns

**Hey guys! I would like to thank ****mks 12 98**** for the **_**wonderful **_**idea *****cackles evily*****. And thank you all for the great reviews :)**

I was helping Shane unload water from his car when we heard the screaming.

Everyone rushed into the woods towards the sound as fast as our legs could carry us, all armed. I was prepared for there to be a herd of walkers, I had guns and knives strapped to my black skinny jean- covered legs, and a string of bullets around my torso, which I had put a red tank top over. By my side was Shady, who looked almost excited to tear apart some walkers.

Halfway to the screams, we found Sophia and Carl running towards us, and their mother's hugged them protectively.

"Are you all right? Nothing bit you nothing scratched you?" Lori asked Carl in fear. The boy shook his head, and I followed the rest of the group deeper into the woods.

We found what had made the kids scared, it was a walker, eating out of the neck of a deer. We circled it, and it turned around, hunger shining in its foggy grey-green eyes and blood dripping down its rotting chin.

The moment it growled at us, Rick hit it with a long pole, and the others proceeded to beat it, until Dale chopped its head off with an axe.

"Hey, shouldn't you smash its brain… and no one's listening," I sighed it annoyance.

"This is the first one we've had up here, they never come this far up the mountain," Dale said in a worried tone

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," replied Jim.

There was rustling in the bushes, and everyone turned around with their weapons pointed at the noise. In a flash, I had my crossbow out and ready to shoot the threat in the head.

Out of the forest came Daryl, looking totally pissed off,

"Sum'bitch! That's my deer!"

He walked over to the zombie carcass, and started to kick it,

"Look at how gnawed on, this filthy," kick, "Disease bearing," kick, "Motherless," kick, "Poxy bastard," kick.

"Calm down son, that's not helping," Dale said, trying his best to help the situation, which didn't help much,

"Whatdya' know about it old man?" Daryl ranted on, "You take that stupid had and go onto the golden pond."

The hunter turned back to the dead animal, and pulled out his arrows,

"I've been tracking that deer for miles, I was gunna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. Do ya think we can cut around this chewed- up part right here?" Daryl asked as he pointed to the deer's neck.

Shane shook his head, "We can't risk that."

"It's a damn shame," the hunter started, "I got us some squirrel, about a dozen or so."

He started to walk away, but the zombie head cam e back to life, and I face palmed.

"Oh, god," Amy said in disgust, and she and Andrea quickly walked away back to camp.

"C'mon people, what the hell?" Daryl asked in an annoyed tone, he got ready to put an arrow through the biting head, but I beat him to it.

I calmly walked over to the head, and plucked out my arrow.

"I see your still here," said Daryl, still looking a bit angry off.

I rolled my eyes, "No, I just came here to stop and rest before I go back out into the world and get eaten by flesh eating monsters because it's just _so _much more fun than hanging out with you guys."

Daryl looked like he wanted to kill me very painfully, and stalked off back to camp with the rest of us following him.

"Merle! Merle, get your ugly ass out here, got us some squirrel, lets stew 'em up!" the hunter shouted to his brother, who wasn't here. Oh snap, this was going to be _really _awkward!

"Daryl," Shane started, "Lets slow up a bit there's something we need to talk about."

"'Bout what?"

"There's a, uh, problem," said Shane.

I think this is when Daryl realized that his brother wasn't here, "Is 'e dead?"

"Not sure," Rick said calmly.

"He either is or he ain't," the hunter said in a very angry tone.

Rick began to march up to Daryl,

"There's no easy way to say it so I'll just say it."

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes," Daryl mocked, "Got somthin' ya wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof to a piece of metal, he's still there."

Daryl turned around,

"Let me process this, ya said ya handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there?!"

"Yeah."

Oh god, this was not good.

Daryl started to advance on Rick, but he was tackled to the ground by Shane.

"Watch the knife!" someone shouted.

Daryl was up again, and took a few swings at Rick before Shane came and grabbed around the neck.

"Ya best let me go!" Daryl screamed.

"I think this is better," said Shane calmly.

"Choke hold's illegal!" the hunter shouted.

"Well, you can file a complaint," Shane snipped back.

Daryl tried to started to fight back,

"Come on, we can keep this up all day," stated Shane.

Rick knelt to the ground by Daryl,

"Listen, I'd like to have a calm discussion on this, do you think we can mange that?"

It looked like Daryl was beginning to have some trouble breathing, and Shane released him.

"Know what I did was not on a whim," Rick started, "Your brother, does not work and play well with others-"

"It's not Rick's fault," T-Dog interrupted, "I had the key, I dropped it."

"Why didn't you pick it up?" shot back Daryl, who was still breathing heavily.

"I dropped it in a drain."

Daryl picked himself up off the ground,

"Is that s'pposed to make me feel better? 'Cause it don't."

"Well maybe this will; I chained the door to the roof so the geeks don't get at him. It's padlocked," T-Dog told Daryl.

"That's got to count for something," said Rick.

Daryl wiped his face,

"To hell with all a ya'll! Just tell me where he is so I can go get 'im!"

"He'll show you," I looked up to see Lori talking.

Rick nodded,

"I'm going back."

Daryl turned around and left to get his crossbow and arrows ready, while I headed to my tent. I was going to go with them.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I walked back to the main campsite, dressed in the black skinny jeans I had been wearing earlier, but I had changed from my red tank top to a dark army green one, with my usual light brown above-the –elbow gloves and hiking boots. I had looked through all of my duffle bags again, and now resembled a human weapon. I had a string of bullets around my torso, with another one around my waist that was just above my belt that I had two guns on my sides strapped to. On my thighs were three knives each, and on both calves were a set of throwing knives. Slung over my shoulder was my crossbow.

By my side was Shady, who seemed to know what was happening and looked very happy at being ably to kill. Or re-kill in our situation.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Rick asked as he walked up to me with Shane behind him.

"I'm going to prom. Where do you think I'm going? I'm coming with you guys to go get Merle of course!" I told them.

Shane shook his head,

"No, Samantha. We're already sending four people, let's not make it five and a very useful hunting dog."

"But-"

"No buts Samantha, and besides, we need you to stay here and help protect camp, it could get more dangerous with the walkers starting to head out of the city," Rick told me.

I sighed,

"Fine, but Shady's going with you," I told them as I pet the large black dog.

"Come on people! Let's go!" I heard Daryl shout from the truck as he hit his foot on the steering wheel, sounding the car's horn.

Rick left to find Lori and Carl so that he could give them his proper good byes, and I walked over to the truck.

Daryl was sitting in the back, checking over his crossbow, and he looked up when he heard my footsteps.

"Whadd'ya want, princess?"

I ignored the nickname,

"Shady's coming with you to Atlanta."

Daryl scrunched up his nose,

"Not that mutt!"

I put my hands on my hips and glared at him,

"He's not a mutt!"

"Whatever, why do you want us to take him anyways? It's not like he'll be any help."

"For your information, Shady is an amazing hunter and great at killing walkers. And he _will _come with you, one way or another," I growled in a slightly threatening tone, which made Daryl back off a bit.

"Now," I started, "Shady will do whatever want him to, but you have to say it backwards, alright?" without waiting for an answer, I continued, "And I want him back here alive. I don't care if he's gotten bit and turned into a rabid zombie dog, bring him back living. Do not shoot him, or I will freaking kill you, got it?" I told the hunter with a voice that clearly meant _'I will tear you to shreds and use your skin to make a new dress painted red with your blood.'_

Daryl glared back at me,

"Are ya sayin' that my life is worth less than your damn dog's?"

I smirked playfully,

"Yes. Yes I am."

Daryl just sighed as I knelt down to be more even with Shady's height,

"Shady, ouy evah ot og htiw eht syug. Od tahw yeht yas. Llik eth seibmoz. Od ton teg tib. Emoc kcab ot em. I evol ouy," I told my beloved companion. I kissed him on the head, and in return, he licked my face.

Shady hopped into the truck, and I began to walk away, when I turned around,

"Hey, Daryl."

"What now?" He said, slightly annoyed as he took his eyes away from his crossbow.

"I hope you find your brother. You're lucky to have someone that cares about you," and, then, I walked away.

**Please review! And ****mks 12 98****, your wish shall be fulfilled next chapter. Ed will learn that you do not mess with girls. Especially ones named Samantha who are genetically engineered to have twice the abilities of a human and can totally beat the crap out of you. :) Thank you for the idea! **


	11. Beating the Crap Out of Ed

**Yay! Next chapter!**

I was helping Amy, Andrea, Jacqui, Lori, and Carol with the laundry down in the quarry lake (with my gloves on), while Shane and Carl tried to catch frogs, which I found both cute (Carl) and hilarious (Shane). Sitting in the back of the car smoking a cigarette, was Ed. I swear, one day I will beat the crud out of they guy for being so _useless_. I swear; I have never ever sent that guy work!

"What about you, Sam?"

"Huh?" I guess I was deep in thought about finding the perfect time for Ed to screw up so I could maim him, which might not happen because he NEVER DOES ANYTHING!

"I said, what do you miss about your old life," Andrea asked me again.

I tapped my chin,

"Hmm… probably annoying the crap out of my old tutor, Professor Benkins. His face turned the perfect shade of purple when I mentioned how he hadn't had a girlfriend, or even a friend who was a girl in five years," _then he would electrocute me._ I added in my mind.

This caused everyone to laugh like a pack of hyenas on a sugar high.

"What's so funny?"

Oh. My. God. Ed can move! I seriously thought he was like some sort of rock/human creature, so that the only thing that gets him to move is the mention of food and a new pack of cigarettes. I'm not kidding, I seriously started to believe that.

"Just swapping war stories, Ed," Andrea said before getting back to work.

Ed kept coming closer until he was right by us (Holy crud he can walk too!),

"Is there I problem, Ed?" I asked.

The man glared at me,

"None that concerns you. You folks ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club."

Okay, if he did one more thing to piss me off, I will seriously make him look like he had been to hell and back with a pack of rabid monkeys chasing him.

A few minutes later, he was still just standing there lighting another cigarette, and I was now wishing Shady was here so he could 'spontaneously get rabies' and fell the need to attack and kill the nearest fat, useless man smoking a cigarette.

It seemed like Andrea felt the same, because she got up from where she was sitting and said to Ed,

"Hey, if you don't like the way your laundry's done, you can gladly just pitch in and do it yourself," and with that she threw a soggy shirt at Ed but he used his reflexes (Ohmygod he has reflexes! This is a scientific breakthrough!) and threw the shirt back at Andrea, slapping her in the face.

"Don't tell me how to do my job, missy," he said.

"Andrea, don't!" Amy shouted, expecting what was coming, but she didn't listen, and she didn't get the chance to speak, because I did for her.

"Ed, what exactly _is _your job? Sitting on your fat ass smoking cigarettes all day? Because that's what it looks like," I told Ed as I stepped in front of him and Andrea.

"Well I'll tell you what it ain't, it's not listening to some upitty smart-moth bitch, that's what. Come on, lets go," he said, motioning to Carol.

"I don't think she has to go anywhere with you, Ed," Andrea said with her hands o her hips.

"Yes she does, come on now," the fat man said again, motioning to his wife.

Andrea put her hand on Carol's shoulder, whispering to her that she didn't have to go, while I glared at Ed. Let me tell you that it's probably a bit scary to be glared at by me. Somehow, whenever I get mad, my pupils get smaller, and my right eye starts to twitch.

"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass, just 'cause you're some college-educated cuse, alright?" Ed threatened Andrea. Huh, I wonder how long it took him to come up with that one. Probably a few years at the least…

"Now, you come with me, or you'll regret it later," Ed said to Carol.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises?" Jacqui asked, the fat man looked surprised, "Yeah, we've seen them, Ed," she told him.

"You know what?" Ed told us, "I am done talking to you, now come with me," and he started to take Carols arm. We tried to take it away, but then Ed slapped Carol, hard.

This was my breaking point.

Before anyone could even blink, Ed was on the ground with me on top of him. I punched him, and I heard his nose break. I punched him again in the kidneys, then put my bare foot on his stomach, took his arm, and broke it. Then, I started to dig my sharp nails into his face, leaving what looked like animal claw-marks over his right eye.

"Listen closely Ed, if you lay a single hand on Carol or Sophia, I will not stop beating you until the lake has turned red with your blood, do you here me?" I threatened in a low, hissing voice.

"Myesh," Ed mumbled.

I got up off him, and Carol rushed to his side, how she could care about him, I have no idea.

Everyone looked at me surprised, but I kept a calm face, while saying,

"He should have known not to piss me off, and we did give him a fair warning, but he didn't listen, so what happened was entirely his fault." _And I was planning on ambushing him tonight anyways and blaming it on the walkers, so it was going to happen either way. _I didn't add the last part.

**Done! Sorry this was a shorty. I hope you got what you wanted, ****mks 12 98****! **


	12. The Attack

**Time for next chapter! Thank you for all the great reviews! The song is called 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift. **

It was nighttime, and we all sat around the campfire. Carol was checking on Ed, I heard that he turned into what resembles a rotting prune that is home to a colony of maggots.

With her head on my lap was Sophia, and tucked under my arm was Carl. They're so cute!

"Hey, Samantha?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, kid?"

"Why do you where gloves all the time?"

I froze for a second, what do I say what do I say? Got it!

"I just do, and if I take them off I just feel weird. They're sort of like a second skin," this was a total lie. I hated the feeling of them almost constricting my arms (which are still ghost white, I haven't even gotten the slightest amount of color in them), and they felt so gross whenever I sweat, like soggy, humid bags around me.

But Carl just nodded, and became quiet again.

"Sammy?" it was Sophia who was talking now.

"Yeah?"

"Can you sing?"

Well, I was not expecting her to ask that. This question brought a slight blush to my cheeks, and I was about to say no, but I looked into her big, shiny eyes, and I couldn't lie,

"Well, I do, but I'm not that good," I said a bit shyly.

"_Please_ Sammy? Just one song? I'm sure you're really good!" she begged.

"Yeah, and we promise not to laugh if you're horrible," Shane said with a smirk.

I sighed,

"Fine, one song." I told them, and started to sing,

"I remember tears streaming down your face

When I said, I'll never let you go

When all those shadows almost killed your light

I remember you said,

Don't leave me here alone

But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

Don't you dare look out your window darling

Everything's on fire

The war outside our door keeps raging on

Hold onto this lullaby

Even when the music's gone

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

Just close your eyes

You'll be alright

Come morning light,

You and I'll be safe and sound..."

Everyone started clapping, and I blushed again.

"Not bad, not bad at all," said Dale with a smile on his face.

I laughed softly.

"Where are you going?" I looked up to see Andrea talking to Amy, who seemed to be starting to leave.

The younger of the siblings blushed,

"I have to use the bathroom, gosh, you try to keep things secret around here," this caused everyone to laugh.

If only Amy knew. She was worried about people knowing that she had to pee, while I was trying to hide that I was genetically engineered to be the leader of the new race of species that would survive the zombie apocalypse.

A few minutes later I heard the door to the RV open.

And then it happened.

Out of the forest came tons of walkers, and in no time at all everyone was up and screaming. Out of the sheath on my leg came my knife, and just in time too. I spun around, and stabbed a walker in the eye, and it fell to the ground.

Faster than you could blink, I had replace the knife with two guns, and I fired like mad. Two, four, ten, sixteen, twenty, reload. Reload, reload. Out of bullets.

A zombie came out of the darkness and tackled me to the ground. I lay on my stomach, the back of my gloved arm pushing against its throat, keeping it from biting me. Nothing would have happened if it did, but I would have to do a lot of explaining to the group, and I didn't want that.

I pushed the zombie off of me, and used my knife to stab it in the fore head.

I turned around, and saw another walker about to bite me. But before I could do anything, it was tackled to the ground by a large black dog, with golden eyes.

**Shady POV**

Tackle zombie, protect sister. Tear off head, protect sister. Turn around, see sister. Sister smiles. SISTER! Lick lick lick. I love sister. KILL ZOMBIE!

**Samantha POV**

"Shady!" I screamed in joy as he licked my face. I hugged him tight, I hadn't realized how much I missed him until now.

"Look out!"

An arrow whizzed past my head, and hit a walker that I hadn't seen in the center of its head.

I whirled around to see Daryl with his crossbow at the ready. Behind him in the frenzy were Glenn, T-Dog, and Rick.

I jumped up off the ground, and focused.

For the past 26 years of my life I had been trained to fight these disgusting creatures, and I was being sloppy. It was game time.

I took out both of my knives, and started to slash through the walkers like they were slabs of butter. Rotting butter that wanted to eat you.

Only a few feet away from me at a time, was Shady. He bit and clawed and smashed and tore at those zombies like there was no tomorrow.

I was in my element.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

It wasn't until later that I realized what happened.

The walkers weren't the only ones that had been killed. We lost some of our own as well.

Andrea was kneeling on the ground, holding her dead sister's hand. She had barely moved an inch all night long, and in less than eight hours, Amy was going to be a walker.

I walked around the camp with a pick-axe slung over my shoulder, helping to smash open the heads of all the walkers, just to be sure that they were completely dead.

"A walker bit him! A walker bit Jim!" Jacqui screamed.

I dropped my axe, and ran over as fast as I could (Which was pretty fast), and lifted up Jim's shirt while T-Dog held him from behind. Clear as day, on his side was a bloody bite, which was quickly becoming infected.

I dropped his shirt, and T-Dog let him go.

"I'm okay," he said, "I'm okay," he muttered over and over again.

Everyone looked at him in fear, and Shady, who was by my side, growled low in his throat.

This was most definitely not good.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"I say we put a pick axe in his head, and that dead girl's and be done with it," Daryl said in a dark voice.

"Is that what you want?" Shane asked the hunter.

"Yeah, it is."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I think Daryl's right," Dale said to the group.

Rick spoke to us in a sensible, calm tone,

"Jim's not a monster Dale, or some wild animal-"

"I never said that," Dale told Rick, offended.

"He's sick, he's sick and we draw the line at killing-"

"I think the line's pretty clear," Daryl argued, "zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

Rick looked at us, and said something I found totally crazy,

"What if we could get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

I had heard bits of this from time to time, back at Area 52 when the zombies first appeared. There was talk about maybe joining up with the CDC to see if they wanted to work in the Salvation Project, but it was doubtful, as people argued that the CDC was to 'public', for the Salvation Project, and might release information about Area 52 that they didn't want anyone to know. Like how they kidnapped a three –day- old baby girl and turned her into an entirely new species in the cruelest of ways. So yeah, I don't think that they have a cure.

Shane spoke to Rick.

"I heard that too," he said, "I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the CDC is still up and running?" argued Rick to the deputy.

"Then that is a stretch right there," said Shane.

"Why?" Rick asked, slightly angered, "If there's any government left, any structure at all they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's are best shot! Shelter, protection, rescue-"

Shane cut Rick off,

"Okay, Rick you want those things, alright? I do too, but if they do still exist they'd be at Fort Benning-"

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction," I told Shane, remembering how I had to memorize all of the U.S.'s army bases back at Area 52 with Benkins.

"I know," Shane said to me, " But it's away from the hot zone. Now I think the base will be heavily armed, and we'll be safe there."

"But the military were at the front lines on this thing, and they were brought down and we've all seen that!" Rick said, persistent at trying to sway the groups favor in going to the CDC rather than Fort Benning, "The CDC is are best favor and Jim's only chance!"

I decided that it was time to take charge of things, and be sensible,

"Everyone, I think we should let Jim decide. It's his life that we've put into our hands, when he should be the one to make the final decision," I told them.

Daryl scoffed at me,

"In case you haven't noticed, princess, he's not exactly clear in the head, now is he?"

I humphed, and started walked over to Jim, who was by the RV. I kneeled down, and looked him in the eye. I held up two of my fingers in front of his face,

"Jim, how many fingers am I holding up?" I asked him calmly.

"Why, why are you asking me these questions?" he asked with fear in his voice, "I'm okay. I'm okay," he said as he rocked back and forth.

I smiled,

"That's nice, Jim. Now it's nap time."

I swung my arm back, and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold with my Salvation strength.

The others rushed over to me, as I was checking his pulse, which was slowing down to a steady beat.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" Shane yelled at me.

"It's quite simple," I said, "When you wake up after getting knocked out, you're a bit disoriented, right? Well, Jim was already like that, so when he wakes up he'll be clear, you see?" I explained to the other survivors.

Daryl looked at me,

"Well what if he wakes up and he's a walker?"

"Then you are welcome to smash his head open," I told the hunter with a smirk. I continued on, looking at all the survivors,

"Well, Jim's not going to move himself, and I need at least one other person to help me so… any volunteers in helping to move a guy who could wake up any moment now and try to eat your face off?" I asked with an innocent smile.

Rick sighed,

"You take his arms, I'll take his feet."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I sat next on the Bed next to Jim, with Shady lying on the floor next to me. Jim had been out for about twenty minutes now, and I was getting a bit bored.

I got up from my place, and looked around the RV until I found what I was looking for. I went back to the bed, and began to sketch…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

A few minutes later, Jim started to wake up. It was perfect timing too, as I had just finished my sketch.

"What happened?" Jim asked he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

I put a hand on his chest,

"Stay down, you shouldn't move."

He did as I said, and I spoke to him,

"Jim, I need you to make a decision. You have to choose if we should go to the CDC, or Fort Benning. Rick thinks that whatever's left of the government or military will be at the CDC, protecting it. But Shane says that it would have moved to Fort Benning, which as you might have heard, is 100 miles in the opposite direction of the CDC. It's your call," I told him.

Jim was silent for a while, and I began to think that he would never decide, when he spoke. He spoke what would decide the fate of the whole group.

"CDC."

**Done! This is the first chapter I've written with over 2000 words! You guys are going to LOVE the following chapters! They're gunna be awesome! :D Review please!**


	13. Annoying Daryl

**Yay! Next chapter! **

We had packed up camp to leave for the CDC, and were all getting into our cars. I was about to hop into my jeep, when I suddenly remembered something.

I quickly ran over to the others, who were talking about the fastest rout to take, and found Dale,

"Hey, Sam. What can I help you with?" the old man asked me.

I smiled,

"Nothing much, I just have two questions before we start."

"Fire away!"

"So, do you drive on the right, left, or middle side of the road, and what do the signs that have all the numbers and then 'mph' next to them mean?"

Dale laughed,

"Your funny, Samantha! Now, what did you really want to ask me?"

"Dale," Daryl said, "She's not kidding."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Glenn, if you crash my car, I will kill you, and then use your body as a speed bump. Got it?"

I was standing next to my jeep, with Glenn in the driver's seat and his hand about twist the keys in the ignition.

He nodded, face pale in fear as I glared at him with my golden-yellow eyes, one of them twitching slightly,

"Y-yes, Samantha. I-I'll take care of your car," he said, voice wavering.

After learning that I only knew how to _drive _a car, and nothing else, everyone decided that it would be best if I rode in someone's car.

I couldn't go in my jeep with Glenn, as it was being used to transport supplies. The Morales family were splitting off from us to go find their family, and I was sticking with the group. Shane and T-Dog where in the deputy's jeep, also being used for supplies, Carol, Sophia, Lori, Carl, and Rick were all in on car together, and Dale and Andrea were in the RV together, having some mourning time for Amy. That left Daryl.

I walked over to his car, where I found him loading up some camping supplies.

"Hey, Daryl?" I said to the hunter.

He turned around, and frowned at me,

"What do ya want now, princess?"

I glared at him,

"You're the only person I can ride with to the CDC, everyone else's car is full."

"Fine," he said, "Just don't bother me, or you'll have to find another ride. And ya mutt best behave," he told me in a slightly angry tone as he pointed to Shady.

"He's not a mutt!" I growled at the hunter as I stepped into the front passenger seat in his truck, with Shady right behind me.

Daryl got into the car, and started to follow the caravan of cars out of our old campsite.

For about the first twenty minutes it was silent, but then Shady started whining from his place in the back seat of the car. He scratched the window, and I knew he wanted it down.

I reached out to press the button that would let the window down, but Daryl stopped me,

"What do ya think ya doin'?"

"Shady wants the window down, if he doesn't have enough fresh air he gets sad," I told the hunter.

"Fine," he said. I quickly lowered the window, and Shady stuck his head out of it, enjoying the cool breeze.

A few more minutes of silence, and I started to get bored. I pulled out my iPhone, from my clothing duffle bag by my feet (the ones with the weapons were with Glenn), and started searching through the songs on it. I finally found one called 'Caramelldanse' by Caramell, and started to play it. The singers had horribly high-pitched slightly robot-like voices, and sung in rapid Japanese with the volume on full blast. I didn't really like it, but I feltn the need to annoy Daryl.

"What the hell is this?!" Daryl yelled over the noise.

"Caramelldansen! Don't you think it's just totally awesome!" I shouted back.

"Turn it off! It's freakin' annoyin'!"

"But I love it!"

"My car, my rules!"

"I don't care!"

"Turn. It. Off. Now."

"You're making me sad!"

"Ya have one last chance, turn it off."

"NEVER!"

"That's it!"

Daryl grabbed the phone out of my hands, and pressed the off button. I pretended to cry,

"You're so mean!"

Daryl handed me my phone back,

"Don't you dare turn that music on again or you'll be done for, got it?"

I huffed,

"Fine."

I put duffel bag on my lap, putting the phone inside it. I was _still_ bored, so I started to look through it. After about five minutes, I found my sketchbook, a #2 pencil, and s jumbo set of colored pencils.

I started to draw, the only sound in the car was the hum of the engine, the scratching of my pencils on the paper, and the wound of the wind from the open window.

Twenty minutes later, I was finished. The picture was of a little silver rabbit, running through a large emerald green meadow, with little flowers of every color dotting the grass. The sky was a lovely pale blue, with only a few creamy white clouds above. It was Amy.

I decided that I would give it to Andrea later next time we stopped the caravan.

A few minutes later, I was bored. Again. For the fourth time today.

"Daryl?" I said.

He sighed,

"What now?"

"Can I sketch you?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm bored."

"Sure."

I smiled, and got to work.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Finished!" I said proudly as I looked at the sketch. I had drawn a tawny wolf with tinges of brown, black, and white in its fur, along with cold dark blue eyes, walking through heavily forest area with a determined look in its eyes.

"Let me see," Daryl said as he stuck his hand out, motioning me to give him the sketchbook.

I handed it over,

"I thought you said you wanted to sketch me?" he said as he eyed the drawing, being careful not to crash into Shane and T-Dog, who were driving in front of us.

I took the sketchbook back from Daryl,

"I did draw, you. Just as an animal instead of a human, you see?" I told the hunter.

"Why do you draw people like that?" he asked me.

I shrugged,

"I don't really know, I just do. I'm guess I'm not good at drawing things how they really are." I told him.

He didn't reply.

"Daryl?" I asked.

"Yeah?" he replied, eyes locked on the road.

"I'm sorry about Merle," I said with sympathy.

His eyes turned cold, and said with anger visible his voice,

"What would you know about it?"

I laughed, it but it wasn't the happy kind, it was just full of bitter emptiness,

"Nothing. Until you found Shady and I, and brought us to the camp, no one had ever, in my entire life, cared or loved me at all. My mom left me and my father when I was only three days old, and I barely ever saw him, once a week if I was lucky. And even then he never talked to me. In fact, the only person who really talked to me was my tutor, Professor Benkins, and the only reason why he did was because it was his job! But that doesn't mean that I can't be sorry about Merle!" I told Daryl. I leaned against my seat, and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Damn, ya don't have to get so emotional!" Daryl said to me, still slightly pissed off.

I sighed,

"Yeah, but you don't have to get so defensive all the time. You should just relax and have some fun once and a while!" I said with a small laugh.

Daryl scoffed,

"Yes, 'cause it's so easy to have fun during the apocalypse."

I laughed again,

"Fine, whatever, you can just keep being a buzz kill until the day you die!"

Daryl started to laugh, but hid it by making a noise that sounded like a cross between a cough and a dog with a spider lodged in its throat.

Weird…

**Daryl POV**

We didn't talk after she called me buzz kill, and pretty soon she fell asleep.

I looked at her, I really looked at her for the first time. Her long brown hair went just past her mid back, and it looked soft and silky.

Her skin was so pale it was white, like the color of the moon, or snow. Almost like she never went outside.

Although they weren't open, I knew that the contacts she wore were a stunning golden-yellow color. I wondered what her real eye color was, and why she wore contacts. Maybe she needed glasses and wore contacts instead.

I looked over her outfit. She was wearing the outfit I had first seen her in; grey tights, green shorts, brown hiking boots, a black tank top, and, of course, brown over-the-elbow gloves.

It was then that I really noticed that no one had ever seen her arms, or legs. I was told that she just liked to have her arms covered, but I noticed after the walkers attacked camp and we were smashing in there heads and dragging around the bodies that she was sweating like the rest of us, which made her gloves extremely wet, and she kept muttering to herself,

"Stupid gloves, I freaking hate you. I wish I didn't have to wear you all the time, you stupid suffocating sweat bags. Grrrahhhh!"

I began to wonder; was Samantha hiding something?

**Woo hoo! Next chapter they get to the CDC! I'm so excited to write the next chapters! You guys are going to LOVE THEM! Please review! :D**


	14. Goodbyes to Jim

**Next chapter! Cool fact: 72626842 spells 'Samantha' in numbers. Also, you probably already noticed this but just in case you didn't the cover of this story is a picture of Samantha that I made on the computer. The program is made by Rinmaru. **

**Goldenfightergirl****: Samantha knows about music because whoever previously owned her iPhone uploaded a bunch of songs onto it, and it was Benkins's job to teach her about the outside world, which included music. **

Dale honked the horn on the RV, and the caravan stopped.

I had woken up a few minutes earlier, and was now almost fully awake, with only the slightest grogginess left.

Daryl, Shady, and I all got out of the car and headed over to where the group was gathering.

"Why'd we stop?" I asked curiously.

"It's Jim," Dale said to us, "He says that he wants us to leave him here."

"Let me talk to him," I demanded.

"Alright, if you want," the old man said, a bit unsure.

I went up to the RV, and stepped inside. I walked to the back of the large vehicle to where the bed that Jim lay resting in was.

He looked horrible, all sweaty and tired. I knew he wasn't going to survive the rest of the drive to the CDC.

"Hey, Samantha," he said in a raspy voice when he saw me.

"Don't talk, just have some water," I shushed him, and put a glass of the cooling liquid with a straw in it to his dry lips.

He slowly drank, and looked slightly better, but only a little bit.

"I want to be left here. I can't go on much longer. My bones are like glass, and every bump hurts so much," he told me.

"Are you sure, Jim?" I asked him softly.

He nodded,

"Yes, this is what I want, I'm sure of it."

I sighed sadly,

"Alright, Jim, I'll tell the others," I said softly.

I came out of the RV, and Rick immediately started to ask me questions,

"What did he say? Is he any better?"

I looked at the group sadly,

"Jim wants us to leave him here, and before you ask, he's completely sane. And even if we didn't leave him here, he'd never make it to the CDC in time. He's in so much pain, and probably only about an hour from turning," I told the group.

"Are you sure?" Rick asked me.

I nodded,

"Yes."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Jim lay against a tree by the roadside, while the rest of us stood in a line, saying our goodbyes.

I was last, and it was finally my turn.

"Samantha," Jim said softly. His voice was raspy again

I smiled slightly,

"Hi Jim."

I felt so sad when I looked at him, he was going to be lost to this cruel world, unless I- _No_, I thought _That's crazy! _But I thought about it, and I had to tell him,

"I can save you," I said flatly.

Jim looked at me in surprise,

"What?"

"I can save you, if you let me," I told him again.

He shook his head with a small smile on his sickly face,

"Even if you could, Samantha, I wouldn't except it."

It was my turn to be the surprised one now,

"Huh? B-but why not?" Why would someone pass up the opportunity to live?

Jim looked me in the eye,

"I've accepted that I'll die, one way or another, and I feel that my time to go is now. I want to be with my family again," he said truthfully.

I nodded,

"Alright, I understand," I put my hand in my back pocket as I started to stand up, and felt something touch my slender fingers,

"Jim," I said.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I have something for you," as I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket and handed it to Jim.

He smiled as he looked at it,

"It's me, isn't it?" he said to me.

I nodded.

It was the picture I had drawn after I punched him and he was resting in the RV. I had drawn a black and white husky in a meadow. Part of the same one I had drawn Amy in.

"Thank you, Samantha," he said to me.

"Your welcome, Jim. Goodbye. Tell your family I said hi, okay?" I told him.

He smiled and nodded,

"Goodbye, Samantha. Also, your eyes, they're natural, aren't they? Not contacts?"

I smirked playfully,

"Yep, completely my norm," I told him.

And then, we both smiled. We smiled one of those special smiles. One of those 'I know a secret' smiles. A Salvation smile.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Hey, Sleepin' Beauty, wake up."

I opened my eyes, awakening from my second nap that day.

"What is it?" I asked Daryl groggily as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"We're almost at the CDC," he replied.

I sat up straight, and stretched my arms above my head.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"'Bout an hour," the hunter told me.

I yawned, and started to search through my duffel until I found my iPhone.

Daryl saw what I had, and instantly snatched it away.

"Daryl!" I shouted in annoyance. He glared at me,

"You ain't goin' to listen to any music. It's annoying."

I sighed,

"I have headphones."

"What?! Why didn't ya use 'em earlier?!" he yelled at me.

I smirked,

"Because I was bored and wanted to annoy you, duh!"

He growled, and reluctantly gave me my phone back.

"Thank you," I said as I put some the ear buds to the headphones I had found in the bottom of the duffel into my ears.

I scrolled through the playlist until I found a song called 'Supermassive Black Hole' by Muse. It was pretty cool, and I hummed the tune a little bit.

I looked out the window, and then I saw it. The CDC.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I got out of the car, along with Daryl and Shady, to be met with the horrid smell of rotting flesh.

All around us were the decaying bodies of military soldiers.

I knew that we had to get to the CDC's entrance before it was to late, and the soldiers came back to life and tried to eat us.

"Come on," I said, "Lets go!"

The group started heading towards the building that should be our salvation. Which was funny, because that's what I'm supposed to be.

"Stay quiet," Rick whispered.

I stayed close to Daryl and Shady as we headed towards the CDC building.

We eventually came up to a metal door, which Rick pressed against,

"I got nothing," he said.

Shane tried to help by pushing against it as well, but nothing happened.

"There's no one here," T-Dog said gravely.

Rick took another look at the building,

"Then why are the doors down?"

"Walkers!" Daryl shouted.

I turned around to see one of the soldiers stumbling towards us. Daryl took careful aim, and fired,

"Let's go, now!" the hunter shouted.

"No," Shane argued, "He made a call!" he was right. Although Jim decided to go to the CDC, it was Rick that confirmed and said yes to the group going.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl yelled at the ex-deputy.

Shane angrily shoved Daryl in the chest,

"Shut up, just shut up!" he walked over to Rick, "This is a dead end!"

"Where are we going to go?" Carol asked in fear.

I spoke to Rick, who I guess was our unofficial leader now,

"Rick, we have to go now. There will be walkers crawling all over the place and if we don't go right now we are dead meat!" I yelled.

"Fort Benning," Shane told Rick, "It's still an option."

Glenn turned around from where he had been standing, watching the bodies,

"It's a hundred miles away!"

"We need to get as far away from the city as possible. Now," I said in a dark voice, "Lets go!"

Everyone turned around and started heading for the cars.

But Rick was still standing in the same place, and he suddenly yelled, stopping the group,

"The camera, it moved!"

"You imagined it," said Dale, just wanting to have Rick get a move on and out of this deathtrap.

"It moved," Rick repeated, "It moved."

"It's an automatic device," Shane told the ex-sheriff, "Now come on!" he took Rick by the arm and started heading towards the cars.

But Rick pulled himself out of Shane's grasp, and threw himself against the door,

"I know you're in there! I know you can here me!"

Shane began shouting orders to get to the cars.

"We're desperate! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left!"

Lori grabbed Rick's arm and started pulling him towards the cars. The walkers were awakening.

"You're killing us!" Rick screamed, "Please! You're killing us!"

And then, the door opened, revealing a brilliant white light.

We were saved.

**Review please! **


	15. The CDC

**Yay! Next chapter! :D**

We stepped inside, guns and crossbows at the ready.

"Hello?" Rick shouted, his call echoing throughout the building.

We heard the cocking of a gun, and looked up to see a man in a grey shirt with a military shotgun in his hand,

"Is anyone infected?" he questioned.

Rick shook his head,

"One of our group was. He didn't make it."

"Who are you?" the man asked.

Without lowering his gun, the sheriff responded by saying,

"Rick Grimes. Who are you?"

"Doctor Edwin Jenner," the man responded, "What do you want?"

"A chance," Rick said.

"That's a lot to ask for these days," Jenner paused, "A blood test, that's the price of admission. The dog too," he told us, pointing to Shady.

Rick smiled,

"Thank you."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We all sat in a large classroom that had been converted to the place where Jenner was taking our blood.

Everyone had gone but Shady and I.

"Next," Jenner said as he got another needle ready.

I walked up to the doctor and sat in the chair in front of him.

"I need you to take your gloves off, please," he said to me.

"No, it's okay," I told him, "You can just take the blood from my shoulder."

The doctor shrugged, and stuck the needle into my upper arm. I didn't flinch the slightest as it pricked my skin, I guess I got over it when I was about three, and the people at Area 52 decided to see how much rattle snake venom I could withstand before fainting, which they injected into me with various needles all stabbed into my body, twice as big as the one that Jenner was using.

"Alright, I just have to do your dog now."

I came out of my train of thoughts as Jenner pulled the needle out of my arm.

"Shady, emoc ereh," I called to my loyal dog.

He padded over to my side from where he had previously been, which was being pet lovingly by Carl and Sophia.

Jenner patted Shady on the head,

"Hey there, buddy, what's your name?"

"It's Shady," I said as I brushed my fingers through his soft black coat,

"Shady, eh si gniog ot ekat emos doolb. Eb lilts," I told the dog.

Jenner took another needle, and stuck it in Shady's thigh. The golden-eyed animal looked a little uncomfortable, but it was over in about three or five seconds.

Jenner sat up from the desk he had been sitting in,

"So, you said you were hungry?"

I nodded,

"As Jacqui said, we haven't eaten much these past few days."

"Follow me," Jenner said.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Oh. My. God. PIE!" I screamed as I started to grab as many of the pastries as I could out of the fridge.

Jenner had lead us to the cafeteria, and then into the kitchens where I found the desert fridge.

And now, everyone was starting at me like I was totally insane as I frantically searched for a fork that I could use to stuff my face with as much pie as possible.

I couldn't find one as fast as I needed, and I just decided to use one of my knives. I stabbed a piece of pie mercilessly until it stuck to my knife, and took the first bite of the delicious dessert I had had in a whole month. Which, in pie years, is a decade.

"OHMAGAWD!" I screamed when the pie touched my tongue, tingling my taste buds.

I ran up to Jenner, and gave him a hug, which seemed to surprise him greatly. I squealed,

"Thank you so much! I love pie! I love it so much it pains me to think about living without it!" I said with a happy giggle.

"Uh… your welcome?" Jenner said unsurely. I guess he hadn't met anyone as obsessed with pie as me.

I ignored it and went back to my pile of pies.

Pretty soon everyone else had gotten some food, and it also turns out that they had alcohol.

Lori allowed Carl to have some wine, and I don't think he'll be having any of it for a while now.

"Hey, Samantha?" I looked up from my fifth pie, to see Daryl in front of me.

"Yeah?" I asked as I took another bight of the delicious chocolate pie.

"Ever gotten drunk before?"

I put on my poker face,

"No. No, I have never been drunk before. I always drank responsibly," I said, voice never wavering as I continued eating my pie.

Glenn, who was drinking from a bottle of wine looked at me, surprised,

"What? Never?"

I nodded, but I couldn't help it anymore. I burst into a fit of giggles. Normally, I was awesome at lying, but pie makes me hyper I couldn't hold it in anymore,

"Okay, just one time though! I was like, sixteen or something, and I found some beer in the fridge. So I drank all of it, then I woke up the next day, in my room, hanging from the ceiling, while hugging a dead chicken. Don't ask me how that happened, it just did. That, and I can't remember what happened after I decided that I was allergic to gravity. True story," I told the group as I finished then chocolate pie, and moved onto a lemon flavored one. .

"Really?" a wide-eyed Shane asked as he took another swig of beer.

I nodded,

"Yeah, I was grounded for a week after that!"

('Grounded' at Area 52 meant that I was buried alive in a pit of mud, while in a clear coffin, for a week. The only way I didn't suffocate to death was that there was a long, thin tube coming out of the clear box.)

Everyone laughed at my story, and I continued on to eat my sixth pie.

And then, Shane had to go and ruin the moment,

"So, when are you going to tell us what happened to everyone? All the other doctors, weren't they supposed to be figuring this out?" he asked Jenner.

This caused everyone to be quiet.

"We're celebrating, Shane. We don't have to do this now," Rick told the deputy.

"Whoa, wait a second, this is why we're here, right? To get answers?" Shane said, "We were supposed to find answers here, but we found him," the ex-policeman spoke, pointing to Jenner, "Instead, we found him; one man. Why?"

Jenner began to explain,

"Well, when things get bad, a lot of people just left, to go be with there families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted," the doctor told us.

"Every last one?" Shane asked, not believing what Jenner had said.

"No," said the doctor, "Many couldn't face walking out the door. They…" Jenner took a moment to find the right words, "Opted out."

Everyone became even more silent when they heard this.

"There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time," said Jenner, and I knew that he really didn't want to talk about it anymore.

But apparently, Andrea didn't get the memo.

"You didn't leave," she said, "Why?"

Jenner looked at her, and I saw a flash of sadness in his eyes,

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."

Glenn walked over to his seat, passing Shane and telling him,

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man."

This was probably the most truthful thing I had ever heard.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Most of the facility is powered down," Jenner told us as we followed him through another part of the CDC, "That includes housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a REC room down the hall that you kids might enjoy," Jenner said to Sophia and Carl, "Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies. If you shower, go easy on the hot water," he told us before walking away.

My eyes opened wide, as did everyone else's.

"Hot water?" Glenn repeated.

T-Dog smiled,

"That's what the man said!"

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I let the water run over my snow-colored skin, I giggled, as I shampooed my hair, washing out all the dirt and blood and grease. I felt like I was in paradise.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**No POV**

Rick walked into the main computer room where Jenner was, first knocking on the wall so that he wouldn't surprise the hard-working doctor too much.

"How's the blood?" Rick asked, the bottle of wine he held swinging in his hand.

Jenner paused for a second before replying,

"No surprises," he told the sheriff.

Rick nodded, and came closer to where the doctor was standing.

"I have a question," Jenner said.

"What is it?"

"The girl with the gold eyes, what do you know about her?" asked the doctor.

Rick shrugged,

"Not to much. But her name's Samantha James, and she told us that her father worked at an army base. She and her dog killed the deer Daryl had been hunting, and she drove him back to camp as an apology. She joined us that day. Why'd you ask?" questioned the Grimes man.

Jenner seemed to be deep in thought,

"Just wondering…"

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Daryl POV**

After taking a shower, I went back to the cafeteria to see if they had any beer.

I passed the group of tables we had all been sitting at, and saw that Samantha had left her knife in an empty pie tray.

She had eaten eight full pies in all, which I found a bit impressive.

I took her knife in my hand, contemplating if I should give it to her now, or later. I decided now would be good, as she'll probably find out that it's missing and start to worry about it, which made her tap her foot like mad, and I found that quite annoying after a while.

A few minutes later, I was in the hall that lead to the doors to the rooms that everyone was staying in, and found the door to Samantha's room.

I knocked once, but there was no answer. I knocked again,

"Samantha? Samantha you in there?" I shouted to the door, not too loud as to wake any one, but loud enough.

There was still no answer, and I decided that I would just go in.

I opened the door and stepped inside.

There were several blankets and pillows on the room's couch, with Samantha's clothing duffel bag by it.

Shady was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed that he was with Sophia and Carl.

There was a door at the end of the room that I heard water coming from, and I guessed that Samantha was still taking a shower. The water stopped, and I guessed that Samantha was changing now.

I decided to just leave her knife here, as she would probably get mad at me for being in her room.

I placed the knife on the couch, and started to head out of the room when the bathroom door opened.

I turned around, and saw Samantha.

She didn't have her gloves.

**Warning: Next chapters will be totally freaking awesome. **

**Review please! :)**


	16. Secret's Out, and Ending With a Bang

**This chapter is going to be so cool!**

I came changed into my pajamas, after taking a nice, long, twenty-minute shower, which kept going even after all the hot water was used.

My pajamas consisted of a white tank top, and green fabric shorts, without my gloves (I hate you, evil sweat bags).

I stepped out of the bathroom, looking forward to a nice, long, peaceful rest.

I didn't get that. Why? Daryl was in my room.

"What the hell…" he said quietly to himself.

I couldn't do anything, I was frozen in fear.

He came over and took my arms in his hands, looking over all the scars. Most of them were from walkers, but the others were scratches, or little specks from needle injections.

Then he saw my tattoo, but I pulled away from him, and crossed my arms over my chest. This way he couldn't read the ugly black writing that marked the inside of my right arm.

"Who the hell did this to you?" He asked me, his voice filled with anger.

I just shook my head, and looked up at him with tear-filled golden eyes,

"Daryl, you can't tell anyone about my arms."

His brow furrowed in confusion,

"What? Why not?"

"Just don't, okay? Please," I begged him.

"Fine," he said. I sighed in relief.

"But you still have to tell me who did this to you," he told me.

I knew there was no way of getting around this, Daryl was stubborn,

"Well… uh, you see… I sort of escaped from the army base where my father worked. They're the ones who did this to me," I told Daryl.

He looked like he was about to say something else, but I stopped him,

"Can you please go now?" I asked, even though it was more of a command.

Daryl sighed, and reluctantly left.

As soon as he shut the door, I collapsed on the couch as a river of tears rushed down my face.

_Why, _I thought, _Why did this have to happen? I just wanted to be normal. For once, just once, I wanted to be happy. _

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I walked into the cafeteria, seeing that everyone was up, a few of them hung over, Glenn the most.

I walked over to the young Korean man, as silently as I could. When I was right behind him, I screamed as loud as I could in his ear,

"GOODMORNING GLENN! ARE YOU HUNG OVER?!"

This caused him to fall out of his chair, and onto the floor, while I laughed, along with everyone else,

"Meh… Samantha don't do that!" he mumbled as he picked himself up.

I stopped laughing, and helped my friend into his chair,

"I know what will help you!" I said as an idea popped into my head.

"Wha…?" Glenn mumbled.

I just laughed again, and ran out of the cafeteria and into the kitchen.

Three minutes later, I emerged with at least ten pies carefully balanced in my arms. I put them all on an empty table, and dragged it over to Glenn.

I picked out a strawberry pie, and took out my knife, stabbed the pie, and then started to feed it to Glenn.

He mumbled a thank you, and then went back to moaning and groaning about how hung over he was, and telling us to never let him drink again.

Jenner walked in, and started to get some coffee, after saying a "Good morning" to everyone.

"Listen, Doctor," Dale started, "I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing -"

"But you will anyways," Jenner said in a monotone voice.

Andrea looked at the doctor intently,

"We didn't come here for the eggs."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Dr. Jenner lead us all (including Shady, who trotted by my side) to the large computer room. He clicked some buttons on a computer, while saying to VI,

"Give me a playback of TS-19."

"Playback of TS-19," VI responded.

There was some from a large screen that covered up a large portion of the room.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this," Jenner told us as the information on the screen loaded, "Very few."

The image on the screen changed to a head, that slowly went away to reveal-

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked the doctor. Damn, the kid took the words right out of my mouth.

"An extraordinary one," Jenner told the Grimes child, "Not that it matters in the end," the doctor said in a duller tone, "Take us in for E.I.V."

"Enhanced internal view," VI spoke.

The image filled up the screen, and then shifted so that it was horizontal, and what was left of the head was replaced by a skull with a brain in it. The image zoomed in even more, so that we could see hundreds of electric blue lights.

"What are those lights?" Shane asked.

I automatically spoke out,

"They're electric impulses of the brain called Synapses."

Everyone looked at me with a _'How the heck do you know that?' _expression.

Jenner nodded,

"Yes, where'd you learn that?"

I shrugged,

"My tutor, Professor Benkins back at the army base."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl become rigid in anger.

"Anyways," Jenner continued, "Those Synapses determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth, to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick asked as he moved closer to the screen, "That's what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes," Jenner responded without taking his eyes off the screen, "Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea asked in a curious, but sympathetic voice, "Who?"

The doctor took a short moment to respond, before saying,

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten, and infected… and volunteered to have us record the process," by the tone in his voice I could tell that Jenner knew this person personally, maybe it was a friend, a family member, or a loved one, "VI, scan forward to the first event," Jenner said, almost trying to forget about the person all together.

"Scanning to first event," VI replied to the doctor.

There was some beeping, and we saw the brain again, but there was something dark moving through it now, vanquishing the blue lights.

"What is that?" Glenn asked, in awe as he saw the brain again.

"It invades the brain like meningitis," Jenner responded as he pointed to the screen, "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs," The brain was suddenly completely dark, and Jenner looked down at the floor in hidden sadness, "Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be… gone."

Sophia looked up at her mother with big brown eyes,

"Is that what happened to Jim?"

Carol nodded sadly,

"Yes."

Andrea's eyes filled with tears, and Jenner looked at her in question.

In a quiet voice I said to Jenner,

"She lost her sister two days ago."

The doctor walked over to Andrea,

"I lost someone too. I know how devastating it is," he said, doing his best to comfort her.

"Scan to second event," Jenner commanded Vi.

The voice replied by saying,

"Scanning to second event."

"The resurrection times vary widely," the doctor told us as the screen loaded. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."

Suddenly, red light started to appear in the dark brain.

"It restarts the brain?" a bewildered Lori asked.

Jenner shook his head,

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."

Rick stepped closer to the screen while asking the doctor,

"But, they're not alive?"

"You tell me." Jenner said to Rick.

The sheriff shook his head sadly,

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

Jenner nodded,

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the Neocortex, the human part- that doesn't come back, the _you _part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct."

Suddenly, a tunnel burrowed through the brain, and TS-19 stopped moving.

"God, what was that?" Carol asked, surprised.

Andrea responded to the question, almost without even meaning to as she looked at the screen,

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" she asked Jenner.

The doctor didn't respond.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked in anger and fear.

The doctor shrugged,

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"

"Or the wrath of god?" Jacqui asked, cutting Jenner off.

"There is that," the doctor said.

"Somebody must know something? Somebody somewhere?" Andrea questioned.

"There must be others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked, trying to grab on to any small amount of hope left.

Jenner looked unsure about something, almost as if he was trying to decide if he should let us know something important,

"There was, one place, that was working on a cure. But-"

"But what?" Shane asked.

Jenner turned back to the screen,

"VI, playback message from Area 52."

I froze. How did he know about that? What was going on?

"Playback message from Area 52," VI responded.

Everyone looked at the screen intently as it loaded. I started to panic,

"Hey, I'm, uh, going to go get something to eat," I said quickly.

I began to leave, but Jenner stopped me,

"No, I think you should stay here for this."

I sighed, I knew they would all find out the truth in the heap of lies I had created sooner or later, and maybe this was the easiest way for them to discover my secret.

On the screen appeared a man with dark brown hair and blue eyes hidden behind rectangular spectacles. He was dressed a dark grey tuxedo with a navy blue tie, who sat a clear glass desk with a brown wood wall behind him, with an American flag on a pole behind it. I knew who he was.

"_Hello," _he began, _"My name is Doctor Nathaniel Jones, head of the Salvation Project at Area 52." _

"What's Salvation Project?" T-Dog asked curiously.

Jenner nodded to the screen,

"Just watch."

Doctor Jones continued to speak,

"_The Salvation Project is a genetic experiment that was started in the year 1916. But it is only now that we have actually come up with a successful subject," _

The screen's image flashed to a picture of me. I was dressed in a baggy white shirt and matching skin-tight leggings that ended just above the knee. My hair was messy and knotted, part of it covering the left side of my face, so just one angry golden-yellow eye stared back at you. My arms and legs were covered in bumpy pink scars, and on my right arm was the tattoo that I hated so much. I was holding up a white sign that read SALVATION PROJECT EXPERIMENT 72626842.

"What the hell is this?!" Rick yelled angrily to doctor Jenner.

He just responded in monotone saying,

"Salvation Project Experiment 72626842. But I guess you all know her as Samantha James, don't you?" he asked.

Everyone looked at me, confused, and even a bit scared. I sighed,

"VI, pause playback message from Area 52."

"Pausing playback message from Area 52," VI replied.

"Samantha, what's going on?" Lori asked in fear and confusion.

I sighed sadly,

"Well, for starters, I sugar coated just about everything that I've told you about me," I said to the group.

Carol looked at me with sad eyes,

"Samantha, please just tell us what's going on!" Carol told me, her voice breaking a bit.

I looked at the ground, ashamed at myself for all of the lies,

"There's no easy way to tell you this, so I just will," I took a deep breath, and began my story,

"My real name- or should I say number is Salvation Project Experiment 72626842. That guy up on the screen, Doctor Jones, is my father. When I was three days old, he kidnapped me and took me to Area 52 where I was turned into the first ever successful Salvation-"

"What the hell is a Salvation?" Shane questioned me.

"A Salvation," I began, "Is supposed to be the ultimate species. The new race that will survive the apocalypse. You see, we basically have whatever are previous specie's abilities were, but doubled. Tripled, in some cases."

Glenn stared at me curiously,

"You said _we _are there others?" he asked.

I smiled slightly,

"Yeah, just one though."

"Who?" the young Korean man asked, seemingly for everyone, even Jenner, who I knew had seen the video that said that there was only one Salvation.

I laughed a bit, and ruffled Shady's shadowy fur. He nuzzled my hand with his wet nose in response.

Glenn's eyes very nearly popped out of his head,

"No way…"

"Shady's a Salvation?!" a bewildered Carl asked.

I nodded,

"Yeah, a few days after I met him, he got bitten by a walker when we were trying to find supplies. So, I turned him into a Salvation in order to save him."

Andrea looked at me angrily,

"So your telling me that you can save people from turning into walkers, but you didn't save Jim? Or Amy? Why?" she asked with a murderous look in her eye, for to her it looked like I might as well have killed her beloved sister.

I shook my head,

"I couldn't and didn't save them for several reasons. I can only turn _living _people into Salvations, Amy was already dead. And Jim didn't want to be saved. I asked him, and he said no when we left him by the highway on our way to the CDC. Also, if I did turn him, it would be horrible," I told Andrea.

"Why?" Daryl asked, "What's bad about havin' double the abilities of a normal human?"

"I think I can answer that one," Jenner told the hunter. He turned to the large screen again, "VI, fast forward to Defect 19."

"Fast forwarding to Defect 19," VI replied to the doctor in her strange robotic voice.

The image on the screen changed back to Doctor Jones, who began speaking again,

"_Defect 19 is a small problem that we ran into in the year 1939, and we have sadly discovered that it can not be fixed. In the following video clip, you will see exactly what happens to Experiment 72626842 during Defect 19." _

The image on the screen changed to an over view of a seven year old me strapped to a metal table, in the white shirt and leggings. Surrounding me were six doctors, one of them Jones.

"_What are you going to do to me?" _I asked in a fearful voice, _"Please, please don't make it hurt!" _

"_Don't worry," _Jones said, _"We aren't going to do anything this time." _

I sniffled,

"_You're not?" _

Jones shook his head,

"_No, sweety. You're going to do that all on your own." _

It was then that I started to scream, but it turned into gurgles as blood rushed out of my mouth, nose, ears, eyes- every single pore in my body.

"Oh my god!" Lori screamed as she put a hand over her mouth in disgust.

Sophia hugged her mother in fear as the grey-haired women began to cry. Her sobs got even worse as my skin began to split open. The others just stared in disgust and fear.

"VI, pause message from Area 52," I said, deciding that they had seen enough.

"Pausing message from Area 52," repeated VI.

I turned back to the group,

"Questions, anyone?" I asked with a crooked smile that didn't reach my eyes.

Lori gulped, and wiped the tears from her eyes,

"How long does that last?"

"It starts at midnight once a month for about an hour or two. It's always on the night of the full moon. The moon doesn't effect me in any way, it just marks the day it happens," I told the teary-eyed Grimes women.

"Where exactly did you get all those scars from?" Daryl asked me in a protective voice. Wait, why would Daryl be protective of me? Oh whatever, I'll think about that later…

I shrugged at the question,

"Lots of places. But the most common ones are walker bites, scratches, needles, and gunshots," I said, listing all the horrible wounds off on my fingers.

"Gunshot wounds?" Daryl asked again.

I sighed, and took out one of my handguns.

"What're ya doin'?" Daryl asked in confusion.

And then, I shot myself in the stomach.

I fell to the ground as people screamed. I sat up, and lifted my shirt up so I could see my stomach. My body was healing from the inside-out, pushing the bullet out of my body where it dropped to the floor in a bloody mess. I sat back up, with nothing but a new pink scar, along with the hundreds of others that marked my torso.

"I'm good!" I said while giving a thumbs-up, "Now, I have a question for you, Doctor Jenner," I told the stunned doctor. Hey, it wasn't everyday you saw a girl shoot herself then be totally okay five seconds later.

"Y-yes?" he asked me.

I pointed to the clock that was ticking down on the wall above us,

"When the clock hits zero, what happens?"

Jenner avoided eye contact with me and the rest of the group who were all looking at him curiously, it seems they had the same question,

"The basement generators run out of fuel," he told us quietly. It was obvious he wasn't telling us the whole truth.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asked the super computer.

VI responded by saying,

"When the fuel runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

My eyes widened, oh no,

"Everyone we have to get out of here now!" I yelled.

Shane looked at me, confused,

"What? Why?"

I glared at him, we didn't have time for this,

"Right now sightless and scentless gas is entering the air, and in about five minutes a fuse will be lit which will set the air on fire and we will all DIE. So I suggest we go NOW. So we don't have to DIE!" I screamed at the cop.

That got everyone moving.

We all ran to the doors as fast as we could, but Jenner started to close them. I made sure everyone got out before me, and lastly helping Carl get under the door, before I slid under it my self, but I was moments to late.

The door slammed down on my ankle, crushing it.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as pain rushed through my foot.

The group was ahead by several feet, and quickly turned at the sound.

"Sammy!" Sophia and Carl screamed at the same time.

Everyone started to turn around to get me.

"No!" I screamed, "Save yourselves! Please!"

Daryl ran up to me,

"Sorry, princess. But you're going to live."

He hooked his hands underneath my arms, and pulled me hard from underneath the door.

"AHHH!" I screamed again as the door scrapped against my foot as it closed the rest of the way, breaking every bone in my foot.

Daryl then picked me up bridal-style, surprising not only me, but everyone.

I guess Daryl noticed all the looks he was getting because he said,

"What? She can't walk with a broken foot!" he snapped at the group.

I laughed nervously,

"Uh, I'm good now. Superhuman healing, remember?" I told Daryl as I pointed to my non-broken foot.

He hesitated for a second before putting me down.

"Come on! We only have a few minutes left now!" Rick yelled.

We all ran to the entrance where we first came in.

I ran up to the doors, and tried to open them, but then I remembered that they were locked.

T-Dog seemed to realize that too, and began to hit the window with a chair.

"Get down!" Shane yelled, and then began shooting at the window with the handgun that he kept in his holster. It didn't work.

"The glass won't break?" Sophia questioned in fear.

Carol ran up to Rick with a tan backpack in her hands,

"Rick, I think I have something that might help!" she told the sheriff who looked at her in curiosity.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's going to do anything," Shane said to the grey- haired women.

Carol ignored Shane, and began speaking to Rick again,

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket," out of the backpack she produced a grenade.

Where Rick got that I don't know, and I don't care, because I currently just want to live through a giant explosion.

Rick took the grenade, while Shane screamed,

"Look out!" as we all ducked for cover.

Rick pulled the fuse,

"Oh, shhhhhhhh!" he shouted, remembering the children in our presence who didn't need to hear any bad words right now, in an explosion- explosion situation.

I hadn't realized I was still standing, until Daryl shouted at me.

"Get down!" he yelled, and then took my pale hand in his and pulled me to the ground.

The grenade went off, and Daryl quickly put his arms over Shady and I in an attempt to protect us from the explosion.

The window that we had been trying to get through shattered, and we all ran through the opening as fast as we could.

There were several walkers going around, and began to stumble towards us in hopes of getting some food.

I pulled out my two guns, and began to shoot them in the head along with Daryl and Shane, while Shady just jumped on them and cracked there skull's open with his big paws.

Shady and I ran along side Daryl to his car, which we quickly jumped in.

Suddenly, Rick started honking the horn in the RV, and I could hear them yelling

"GET DOWN!"

Out of the vehicle's windows.

"Shady, nwod!" I shouted at the dog.

He obeyed, and lay down in the back seat of the car.

I put my head between my knees with my hand over my ears.

And then, the CDC exploded.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We were driving again, on another highway, getting as far away from the CDC as possible.

I was in with Daryl in his truck, sitting shotgun while I twiddled my thumbs mindlessly.

"Thank you, for saving me," I said quietly to Daryl.

He kept his eyes on the road,

"You're welcome."

It was silent for a few seconds before I asked,

"So… are you okay with me being a crazy genetic experiment that's meant to turn lead a new species that will survive the zombie apocalypse?" I questioned.

Daryl was quiet for a moment, contemplating what he was going to say. Finally, he spoke,

"I don't care what species you are, you're a nice girl. And I care about you."

Wait, what? Daryl Dixon, the guy who hunts squirrels and the only emotions he ever shows are anger and sarcasm cares about me? The girl who was turned into an entirely new species at only three days old, and was brutally tortured until she escaped 26 years later?

I blushed,

"Y-you care about me?"

I guess it was then that Daryl realized what he said,

"Well… yeah, I guess," he said a bit unsurely.

I smiled, considering all that happened, today was sort of really great.

_End of Season One_

**Woohoo! Longest chapter ever written! Over four thousand words! You will be happy to know that I will be writing about Samantha in the second season of The Walking Dead, and probably the third. There will be more Daryl/Samantha moments included in the following chapters, so yay! Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the story, because it was you guys who motivated me to keep on writing this, and without you, I probably wouldn't have kept this up. So THANK YOU SO MUCH! You guys totally rock! :3**


	17. An Awkward Chat With Glenn

**Yay! Start of the next season :D**

We were back in Atlanta, resting before leaving for Fort Benning.

I was going to be riding in my jeep with Glenn who would be behind the wheel until we could stop and I could be given proper driving lessons, because apparently I was a living disaster when it came to cars.

I had just finished filling up the RV's gas tank, and I now had time for what I had been wanting to do the entire day. Annoy Daryl.

I walked up to him with Shady by my side, to where he was almost getting ready to start his motorcycle.

I smiled at him,

"Hey Daryl!"

He looked up at me from his motorcycle,

"Hey Sam," he said quickly before going back to what he had previously been working on.

I kept smiling.

"Can I help you?" he asked me.

I shook my head, and kept smiling,

"Nope, just waiting for you to notice something!" I told him with a grin.

He sighed,

"Did ya do somethin' to ya hair?" he asked, assuming it was about me.

I shook my head,

"No!"

"Ya found some pie?"

"I wish!"

"Ya cleaned your clothes?"

"There isn't any running water around!"

"Did ya-"

"You have a crossbow for silence but you ride a really loud motorcycle!" I said with a squeal.

He looked at me like I was crazy, which I probably was, 26 years of torture can do that to a person!

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Glenn and I rode in my black jeep, with Shady in the back, right behind the RV in the caravan of cars.

"What's up with you and Daryl?" Glenn asked.

I blushed, bringing the slightest amount of pink to my STILL completely white skin.

"What are you talking about?" I said, putting on my poker face.

Glenn laughed sarcastically,

"Well, you're the only one who willingly talks to him, and he doesn't totally explode when you annoy him, he was the first one to find out about your little secret, and he actually enjoys your company!" Glenn listed off on his fingers.

I shrugged my shoulders,

"Whatever, Glenn."

"Well-"

"Quiet, I'm going to sketch you," I told him as I pulled out my sketch book, which I had left in Daryl's old truck when we went to the CDC, so I'm happy to say that it did not burst into flames in the explosion that Jenner and Jacqui died in.

Twenty minutes later, I had drawn a ring-tailed lemur sitting on the jeeps steering wheel.

Glenn said it was awesome, as usual. I happily no longer had to explain to him again and again how it was almost impossible for me to draw things as they really are, for some weird reason that can not be explained.

Suddenly, The RV stopped.

Wanting to find out what was wrong, I unbuckled my seatbelt, and then stood up on my seat, and stuck my head out of the roof.

In front of the RV was a giant fallen truck, which blocked the highway.

I saw Daryl pull up to the RV's driver's side window, exchanging quick word with Dale.

I sat back down while saying to Glenn,

"There's a big truck blocking the road, it looks like we're going to have to go around it."

Just as I said, the RV began to carefully go around the road blockage.

The caravan was soon on the other side of the truck, and we were met with the sights of a graveyard.

Empty, broken cars were everywhere the eye could see, and I could see double what the normal human being could see, being a Salvation, and I didn't see the end of the wreckage.

Suddenly, I saw smoke rising out of the front of the RV, and the caravan stopped.

Glenn, Shady, and I got out of the jeep, along with the others.

We walked over to the RV, where Dale was looking very mad at his vehicle.

"See, I told you! This old thing can't go ten miles without breaking down!" He shouted, "And I don't have any parts to fix it with-"

Daryl began looking through the back of a broken down car, picking out useful items.

"Well, that was stupid," Dale said to himself.

We all seemed to get the idea, and all began to start scavenging through the cars, while Glenn, Rick, and Andrea stayed behind to help Daryl with the car.

Shady and I walked through the maze of cars, searching for supplies.

There was the general stuff that we all needed to look out for; food and water. But I also really really needed a new change of clothes, because I left them in the CDC. Which exploded into a giant ball of flames.

I looked in several cars before I found some good non-rotting food, and also found a suitcase of clothes that fit me, sadly I didn't have time to really look through them, for I had to find some dog supplies for Shady.

I finally found a car that had dog stuff in it. I grabbed a carton of dog food, a brush, an electric nail-buzzer, a leash, and thick silver chain collar, that automatically tightened and loosened around the dogs neck.

"There you go Shady! Now all we need to get you are some dog tags, and you'll be good!" I told Shady as I pat his head.

We began walking back towards the RV, passing cars of all different shapes and sizes.

Suddenly, Shady sniffed the air, and began to growl low in his throat, standing rigid with his ears flat against his head. It was easy to tell that something was wrong.

Shady looked at me for commands, and to hi I whispered,

"Shady, teiuq."

The big black dog nodded his head slightly, yet again amazing me at his human-like intelligence.

I slowly mad my way to the car we were closest to, and quickly climbed onto the roof, still staying low.

My eyes widened at what I saw.

From the direction behind the RV, cam a herd of walkers, all stumbling in our direction.

I couldn't see the group anywhere, and I assumed that they had been smart enough to hide underneath the cars.

I got back down from the car I was on, and whispered to the dog,

"Shady, ew evah ot daeh sdrawot eht puorg dna pleh meht," he nodded his head again, and we both began to weave are way back to the RV.

We were passing through two cars (big surprise) with several dead bodies near them (I never would have thought…), when something grabbed my ankle.

In a flash my knife was in my hand, ready to stab whatever touched me. I raised the knife, ready to impale the thing when I stopped. It was Daryl, with a dead body on top of him.

He took his hand off my ankle, and motioned for me to get down.

I nodded, and turned to the big black dog,

"Shady, nwod," I whispered.

He did as I said, and got down on his belly, and I quickly through a dead body on him.

I go down on my back next to Daryl, and pulled the ankles of a corpse, bringing it closer to me, and then quickly laying it on top of myself. It smelled horrible, but nonetheless I kept still.

It wasn't long before the herd was walking right by us. To be honest, it was taking all of my composure to not jump up and kill the entire herd.

I wanted this for two reasons. One, I had been trained to do this since I was three days old, and I was extremely scared. Not for me, I didn't care if I got bit, it would just turn into a scar and I'd be totally fine.

No, I was scared about Sophia and Carl. They were just kids, what if one of them got up before the entire herd passes, and got bit? And they hadn't had time to be properly trained in 'Samantha's How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse Class'. And yes, I was going to teach them how to survive, and yes I gave it a long and crazy name, because it makes it that much cooler.

To distract myself from thinking about the kids, I just tried my best to count how many pairs of zombie feet I saw.

About five minutes later, the entire herd had passed, but I waited two more before I actually got out from under the corpse.

I stood up and stretched, and then took Shady's corpse off of him.

"Samantha, come over here I need ya help."

I turned around to see Daryl helping T-Dog stand up.

I couldn't help but gasp when I saw his arm, there was a long, deep gash on the inside of his arm from the elbow to the wrist.

I quickly ran over to the two men, and took T-Dog's arm in my hand.

"This is really bad," I said, "Come on, we have to get back to the RV and clean this," I told T-Dog.

Daryl rolled his eyes,

"That's why I need ya help to him back to the RV."

I just rolled my golden eyes back at the hunter.

To T-Dog I said,

"We have to bandage this right away so it doesn't get infected," I told him.

Then I did something that surprised both of them, I took off the glove on my right arm, and then wrapped it around T-Dog's arm.

Although everyone knew my secret about being a crazy genetic experiment called a 'Salvation' that was meant to surpass the human race by surviving the zombie apocalypse, and I had a bunch of horrible scars and a cruel tattoo that read 'SALVATION EXPERIMENT 72626842' on my right arm that I used to wear gloves to cover, I still tried to never ever take off my gloves, as I didn't like to see all the wounds.

I finished wrapping T-Dog's arm, and the four of us began walking towards the RV, quickly, as T-Dog was still bleeding quite badly.

When we arrived back at the spot where we had all parked, it was easy to tell something was wrong.

Carol was crying on Lori's shoulder, and Rick was patting her back in an effort to comfort her, while Andrea was covered in blood, looking quite shaky.

I ran up to Lori and Carol as fast as I could, which was double the speed of a normal human.

"What's wrong?" I asked with a scared tone in my voice.

Carol looked up at me, her eyes puffy and cheeks red.

"I-it's Sophia," she stuttered, "She's gone!"

**Yay! End of chapter seventeen! Eighteen will be up soon. Review please!**


	18. Chopping Up Zombies

**Hey guys! Thank you for all of the reviews and ideas! By the way, Norman Reedus was in Lady Gaga's music video 'Judas'. I just watched it on Thursday, and this was my face- 8/. Now, on with the story!**

"Gone?! What do you mean she's gone?!" I frantically asked Carol.

Rick was the one to answer my question,

"It's Sophia, one of the walkers found her when she was trying to get out from under her car, and she ran into the forest. I found her, and had her hide by the creek bed while I lead the walkers away, but she was gone when I went back to get her."

So in short, Sophia is lost. In the woods. That could be filled with walkers. That want to eat her face off.

I put on my _'I'm not scared that a little girl could be eaten by zombies'_ face,

"What can I do to help?" I asked Rick.

"I need you, Daryl, and Shady to come with me to get Sophia. Out of all of us, you're the best trackers. Shane and Glenn should come with us too," the Grimes man told us.

I nodded,

"Okay, I'll just need something of Sophia's so that Shady can get her scent so we can see if he can track her," I told Rick.

Carol rubbed the tears from her eyes,

"I'll go get one of her t-shirts," she said in a whisper, as she feared that if she talked to loud she might cry again.

As the grey-haired woman walked over to her car, I started to tap my foot a bit and scratched the back of my head in awkwardness,

"So… T-Dog got cut by a rusty door and probably needs stitches or the cut will get infected and he might die!"

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked Rick as he looked at the indent in the creek bed.

Rick walked over and motioned to it with his hand,

"I left her right here," he told the hunter, "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek," the sheriff said while pointing to the direction he was speaking of.

"Without a paddle, seems where we've landed," Daryl said.

We moved away from the indent, Rick telling us,

"She was gone by the time I got back here, I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way, and keep the sun on her left shoulder," he pointed back towards the direction of where the group was stationed.

Daryl walked over to where Glenn was standing about four feet above water level on the embankment,

"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to the side? You're mucking up the trail," he said to Glenn who quickly moved away.

Shane scoffed from his place on the embankment next to Glenn,

"Assuming she knows her left from her right."

"Shane, she understood me fine," Rick told the deputy, sounding a bit angered.

"She was tired and scared man," Shane continued, "She had a close call with two walkers. You've got to wonder how much of what you said stuck."

I put my hands on my hips and glared at the two,

"Maybe we should try to focus on finding Sophia instead of arguing?"

Rick sighed,

"You're right, Sam. Sorry."

"Got clear prints right here," Daryl said from where Glenn had previously been standing. Rick, Shady, and I quickly walked over while Daryl continued speaking, "She did like you said and headed back to the highway."

Daryl climbed up to the top of the embankment,

"Let's spread out, she couldn't have gone far!" He said in an in-charge voice.

Although I was slightly comforted by Daryl's words, I still couldn't help but think of how amazing children were at getting lost in the worst situations. Like the zombie apocalypse.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We walked through the forest, Daryl leading the way. He seemed to be examining every thing, taking in each little detail with amazing speed.

Suddenly, he stopped and kneeled down, examining a footprint in the dirt that I could automatically tell was Sophia's.

"Seems like she was doing fine until just here," Daryl told us, "All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way," he told us as he pointed to the right.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked.

Shane looked up at he young man,

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off."

Glenn turned a shade paler,

"A walker?"

Daryl shook his head,

"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

"So what do we do?" Shane asked, "All of us press on?"

Rick disagreed,

"No, better if you and Glenn head back to the highway. People are going to start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can, but most of all, keep everybody calm."

Shane nodded as he stood up from where he had been looking at Sophia's footprints,

"I'll keep them busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep them occupied. Come on," the deputy said to Glenn as they began to head back to the highway.

"See you later," I told Glenn and Shane, giving them a quick wave.

Glenn nodded to me,

"Bye, Sam."

The two quickly disappeared among the thick trees, and I was now left with just Shady, Rick, and Daryl.

I looked to the hunter,

"Should we try to see if Shady can track Sophia now?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes,

"Yeah, that's why we brought 'im with us, ain't it?"

I sighed,

"Whatever."

I reached into the back pocket of my usual green shorts, and took out a yellow t-shirt that belonged to Sophia; which had previously been making a large lump in my pocket.

I knelt down to the leaf-covered forest floor, so that I was more of Shady's height,

"Shady, dnif Aihpos," I told the dog as I waved the young girl's shirt underneath his nose. He inhaled deeply, and began to search.

**Shady POV**

Find Sophia find Sophia find Sophia sniff sniff walk walk walk walk walk sniff find Sophia find Sophia sniff sniff walk walk walk- SQUIRRELL! Run run run run JUMP bite. Om nom nom nom nom nom. Sssssqqqquuuuuuiiiiiirrrrreeeellllll.

**Sam POV**

Shady sniffed the ground, searching for the lost girl's scent, which he seemed to have found. We walked for a few minutes, when suddenly, he stopped.

His ears perked up, and golden-yellow eyes became big and glassy.

I face palmed,

"Oh no!" I groaned.

Daryl looked at me in confusion,

"What is it?"

I sighed,

"Shady saw a squirrel."

Suddenly, Shady bolted into the forest at top speed, so he only resembled a black blur darting through the brush.

Daryl and Rick began to move in Shady's direction but I stopped them,

"Wiat, he'll be back in a few seconds," I told them with a sigh.

I loved Shady to death, and he was exceptionally amazing and smart for a dog, but I couldn't help but think he was totally stupid when it came to squirrels. If he saw one, he would automatically stop whatever he was doing (like trying to find a girl lost in a forest during the zombie apocalypse) and hunt the poor little rodent down, and would not leave it alone until he had chewed it's tail off when he could be doing something useful (like trying to find a little girl lost in a forest during the zombie apocalypse). Luckily, he had Salvation speed and strength so eating a squirrels tail didn't take to long, and he could get back to doing what he should be doing (like trying to find a little girl lost in a forest during the zombie apocalypse).

Suddenly, out of the thick forest trotted Shady, happily chewing on a squirrel with its tail in his mouth. He walked up to me, and dropped the mangled rodent at my feet.

I laughed, and pet Shady's head,

"Shady, knaht uoy rof eht lerriuqs. Won, dnif Aihpos," I said to the big dog who automatically began sniffing the air again once I had finished speaking.

Daryl crossed his arms over his chest,

"Damn mutt, some use he is! He's just catchin' squirrels while he should be findin' the girl!" he spoke angrily as he glared at Shady.

I put my hands on my hips,

"Shady is not a mutt! And it's not his fault that dogs love to chase squirrels!" I yelled angrily at Daryl.

"Useless animal he is, that's what."

"Shut up!"

Rick suddenly got between us,

"Hey! What do you think is more important right now; finding Sophia or arguing?" He asked us.

I looked at him for a moment before I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest,

"You're right, I'm sorry," I said to Rick.

The sheriff nodded,

"Good, now we can go get Sophia."

We began walking again, and all was quiet between us.

I smirked,

"He started it."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

To Rick's relief, Daryl and I had finally stopped bickering, and were wandering silently through the forest, following Sophia's footprints that Daryl had first found by the creek.

We came to a halt, all looking at the ground, where the tracks had become very faint, so that even I could barely see them at all.

"The tracks are gone," Rick said sadly as he looked at where the footprints should have been.

Daryl shook his head slightly, staring intently at the tracks,

"No they're faint, but they ain't gone," he pointed at the prints, "She came through here."

Rick looked at Daryl, impressed at the hunter's tracking skills,

"How can you tell? I don't see anything. Dirt, grass."

I nodded in agreement,

"Yeah, I'm a Salvation and even I can barely see them!"

"Do you want a lesson in tracking or do you want to find that girl and get our ass off that interstate?" Daryl asked. He was so engrossed in the prints it sounded like he was half here, and the other part was in his own little world.

We got up, continuing to follow the tracks with Daryl leading the way.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

It was quiet, and none of us were speaking again as we followed Sophia's tracks.

Suddenly, we heard a rustling sound coming from over a small hill, and we immediately kneeled to the ground, with out weapons ready.

Rick motioned to head towards the sound, and we carefully crept closer to the noise.

We stopped, and looked over the hill to see a walker, well, walking.

I looked to Daryl, and he motioned for Rick and Shady to go around one side of the hill while he and I went to the other, so we could distract the walker and kill it.

Rick headed to the walker's right side, going directly in front of it. The zombie growled when it saw Rick, and began to head towards him, but there was a sudden whooshing sound, and it fell to the ground with one of Daryl's arrows in its head.

We all walked over to the zombie, and I realized that it was male, not that it mattered. They were all just dead empty shells driven by hunger that needed to be killed in my opinion.

Daryl stepped on the walker's head and pulled out his arrow, which he then loaded his crossbow with. He looked out in to the thick forest,

"Sophia!" he yelled out, but there was no answer.

Rick knelt down to the ground by the walker, pulling on some gloves, and then starting to examine the now dead dead thing.

"What are you looking for?" I asked Rick curiously.

Without looking up from the body, he responded to my question by saying,

"Skin under the fingernails."

Daryl and I both leaned in closer as Rick flipped the body over so that he could see its face, which was covered in fresh blood.

"Well, it obviously fed recently," I said to Rick.

He nodded, and then pried its mouth open, revealing rotting grey teeth covered in the blood of whatever it had eaten.

He ran his gloved fingers along its teeth, and looked away in disgust as he took something out of its mouth.

"There's flesh caught in its teeth," the sheriff said as he examined the piece of skin.

Daryl leaned in closer so he could get a better look at it,

"Yeah, what kind of flesh?"

Rick looked up with a face that was filled with what could clearly be read as _'why of why am I even suggesting this?'_

"Only one way to know for sure," he spoke as he pulled out a knife from his pocket.

I scrunched my nose in disgust,

"You have _got _to be kidding me!"

Rick looked at me sadly,

"Sorry, Samantha."

Then, he tore open the walker's shirt, reveal a pale, hairy stomach. Flicking open his pocketknife, he got ready to stab the zombie, but was stopped by Daryl,

"Here, I'll do it. How many kills you skin in your life? Besides, mine's sharper," the hunter said as he took out his not only sharp but very big knife.

Then he leaned over the walker, lifted his knife, and plunged it into the zombie's body.

Rick looked away in disgust, trying to ignore the slicing noises that Daryl made as he cut into the walker. I however, watched. Not because I liked it, but I was just so used to it that it didn't matter anymore.

Daryl finally stopped stabbing the walker, and Rick finally looked at it, and I swear it looked like he was going to barf. Daryl had sliced out a square shaped slab of flesh, so that we could now see the contents of its insides.

Daryl looked up at Rick,

"Here comes the gross part."

And with that, he plunged his gloved hands into the walker's body. Let me just say now, it smelled like death. That was dead. And rotting. Daryl ran his hands through the walker, pulling out some of its guts that he threw on the forest floor, while Rick tried his best not to throw up.

Daryl nodded,

"Yeah, hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there," he felt around the walker's insides, before he pulled something gross and slimy (big surprise!) on the ground next to Rick, "Here's the gut bag."

Trying to be tough, Rick pulled out his knife again,

"I got this," he said, and sliced open the stomach.

Out of it he produced what I could only describe as goop. Icky, brown goop. Rick picked some up with his knife and quickly flicked it back onto the ground in disgust.

Using his knife, Daryl picked out the skull of a rodent, which looked as though it had been eaten earlier today.

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch," Daryl said as I looked at the poor little animal's skull, which he then tossed off his knife.

I sighed,

"At least we know."

"Rick nodded,

"At least we know."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We had searched and searched what felt like half the forest, but we didn't find Sophia. I had tried to have Shady find her scent again, and I was pretty sure he was going to lead us right to her, but he stopped all of a sudden, and began turning around in circles trying to find her scent again. It was if she had just disappeared all of a sudden, which I knew wasn't possible.

Walking back to camp, I racked my brain for anything positive to say to Carol about the hunt, but I was to worried to think straight.

Carol was the first one to meet us as we climbed up the grass hill, clothes dirtier than they had ever been before from cutting up zombies and wading through creeks and ponds.

"You didn't find her?" Carol said, her eyes filling with sadness and fear for her young daughter.

"The trail went cold," Rick said as he stepped over the metal barrier that separated the highway from the woods, "We'll pick it up again first light."

Carol shook her head,

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods!"

Daryl tried to reason with Carol,

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost."

"But she's twelve! She can't be out there on her own! You didn't find anything?" said the worried mother as tears filled her eyes.

"I know this is hard," I said to her in a calm voice, "But I promise you we _will _find her. Okay?" I told Carol as I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye.

Rick nodded,

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to over see this," the sheriff said.

Carol nodded, and looked up at Daryl, to see his shirt covered in red.

"Is that blood?" she asked, and started hyperventilating.

I knew Rick didn't want to make her worried, but he had to tell her the truth,

"We took down a walker."

"Walker? Oh my god!"

"There was no sign that it was anywhere near Sophia," Rick told Carol.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked us.

Rick turned away, and looked at Daryl and I for answers, not wanting to talk about the disgusting experience.

I rubbed the back of my head,

"We kind of, uh, cut it open."

Carol rubbed her face, and slowly sat down as Lori rubbed her back comfortingly,

"Oh god," she said quietly, "How could you just leave her out there to begin with?! How could you just leave her?!" she questioned Rick with anger filling her voice.

"Those to walkers were on us," Rick told her, "I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

It was then that Shane walked over to us,

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice Carol," he said to the worried mother.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child!" Carol spoke.

Rick kneeled down to her,

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make."

Shane nodded,

"I'm sure nobody doubts that."

Carol's eyes filled with even more tears, and her voice cracked over her words,

"My little girl got left in the woods."

Rick nodded sadly, and stood up, looking over the scared and worried group.

One thing I knew for sure, I was going to find Sophia, one way, or another.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I was in a blue van; which I had turned into my temporary 'tent', getting ready for bed with Shady already curled up inside of my extra-large sleeping bag. I had changed into a blue tank top and white fabric shorts, and was getting ready to go to sleep, when I heard a knock on the car door.

Wondering who it could be, I walked over and pulled the door open, to come face-to-face with Daryl.

I looked at him quizzically,

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged,

"Just wanted to thank you for helping Rick and I search for Sophia today."

I nodded,

"Okay, you're welcome."

He also nodded, and began to walk away, when I did something crazy and probably stupid. I don't know if it was because of the tiredness of searching for Sophia all day, or if I actually really really did like him and I only just realized it know.

But as he turned to go back to his car where he was sleeping, I took his shoulder, turned him around, and kissed him.

**Whoo hoo! 3000+ word chapter! Review please! :D**


	19. Creepy Corpse Bride

**Yay! Next chapter! OMG I LOVE writing this story!**

It was early the next day, and we were standing next to the RV as Rick rolled out a sleeve of sharp knives and hatchets onto the hood of a car.

"Everybody takes a weapon," he said as we eyed the sleeve with interest.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need, what about the guns?" questioned Andrea in confusion and slight anger.

"We've been over that," Shane told her, "Daryl, Rick, Sam and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

Andrea glared at me,

"Why does Samantha get to have a gun and I don't?" She asked angrily, eyeing my outfit.

I was wearing ripped grey skinny jeans with black legging underneath them, a faded purple-grey tank top, black gloves, my usual dusty brown hiking boots, with my crossbow resting on my back and a belt with two holsters on it that held two duns, along with a knife holder on my calf that held, you guessed it, a knife.

I crossed my arms over my chest,

"The reason that I have guns and you don't it because I've been trained to use them and many other weapons, and the days class was not over until I could no only use that specific gun perfectly, and the throwback was so much that my shoulder popped out of its socket," I said with a glare.

Everyone seemed a bit startled at my little story, but when weren't they? I mean, I told them that the Area 52 version of 'Shoots and Ladders' was when I had to climb up a large wall with many ladders attached to it while people shot at me.

Andrea frowned at the deputy,

"That still doesn't explain why I still can't have a gun."

Shane looked at Andrea in a way that I knew he was going to give her a lecture. Poor girl,

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment and a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it."

Andrea finally gave up, but still looked pissed.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles," Daryl explained to us as Glenn checked out a machete, "Turn around and come back up the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

Rick nodded,

"Stay quiet, and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other. Everybody assemble your packs. Dale, keep on those repairs. We've got to get this RV ready to move."

Dale nodded and stood up from where he had been sitting on the RV's steps,

"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back."

Rick smiled at Dale,

"Thanks, keep an eye on Carl while we're gone," he said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I'm going with you," Carl said, surprising us all, "You need people right? To cover as much ground as possible."

Rick sighed, and looked at Lori, who shrugged,

"Your call, I can't always be the bad guy."

Rick looked unsure, and I knew that Carl _really _wanted to come, so I helped the kid out,

"He has all of us to look after him, and we _do_ need as many people as we can to look for Sophia. I think he should go."

Rick looked at me for a few seconds, before sighing in defeat,

"Okay, okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions."

Carl nodded, and his parents walked away, leaving just me, him, and Dale who had went inside to get his tools to fix the RV.

The Grimes child gave me a small hug gave me a small hug,

"Thank you Sammy!"

I laughed, and ruffled his hair,

"No problem kid! And when we get back, if you want, I'll teach you how to use a knife, okay?"

Carl nodded vigorously, and hugged me again. I hugged him back, and we began to follow the group on our second search for Sophia.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We all trekked through the woods with Daryl leading, Rick behind him, and me behind Rick with Shady stalking through the tall weeds next to me.

We rounded a corner, and I could suddenly see a green and grey tent, seemingly empty.

Daryl stopped, and motioned for everyone to get down, which we complied to do.

"She could be in there," Shane told us in a low voice.

Daryl slowly got up,

"There could be a whole bunch of things in there."

Carol got up to follow Daryl, Rick and I to the tent, but the sheriff motioned for her to stay put with the others, much to her dismay.

Rick, Daryl, and I crept towards the tent, Daryl doing a 180 with his crossbow ready to shoot anything that might endanger us. When we got about ten feet away from the tent, Daryl motioned for us to stop, and for him to go check the tent alone.

Having switched his crossbow for his giant hunting knife that was ready to kill anything that moved, I wasn't to worried about him getting hurt. But when Shady came out of the bushes with another squirrel in his mouth and he came towards the tent, he started to back away with not fear, but disgust in his eyes, and I couldn't help but wonder what was in the tent that had the dog acting so strange, and if it might pose a threat to Daryl.

When the hunter reached the tent, he carefully and silently peered into the slightly unzipped opening, checking to see if there was anything bad in it.

When he was done, he just shrugged at Rick and I, indicating that he didn't know what was inside. Rick nodded, and turned back to the group who were all peering intently at us.

"Carol," Rick whispered, and in less than a second the mother had ran over to us, barely remembering to keep silent.

When she reached us, she, Rick, and I began to slowly walk towards the tent.

"Call out softly," Rick said to Carol, "If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

Carol nodded slightly, and looked at the tent,

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia, we're all here baby, it's Mommy."

We waited to hear the voice of Sophia, to hear any sound that would tell us whether or not she was there.

When we didn't hear anything, Rick put a hand on Ricks shoulder, before he and I headed towards Daryl, who still stood ready to kill whatever might be inside the tent.

When we reached Daryl, he slowly opened the tent, letting out the disgusting smell of death. I immediately began to cough, which wasn't as bad as Rick who was gagging and coughing.

Being brave, I looked inside the tent to see a dead man, who had caused the smell with several maggots crawling all over his face.

"Oh God, that's disgusting!" I said, ending with a cough as I backed away from the tent.

"Daryl?" Carol asked the hunter who had went inside the tent.

"Daryl, come on," I said.

A few seconds later, he stepped out of the tent,

"It ain't her," he told Carol sadly.

The grey haired women looked at Lori with a few tears forming in her eyes.

"What's in there?" the Grimes women asked.

Daryl shrugged,

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?"" Daryl responded as he picked up his crossbow again, checking it over to make sure nothing was wrong with it.

And then, something crazy happened. We heard church bells ringing. Church bells ringing during the freaking _zombie apocalypse. _It must be Sophia.

No less than three seconds later, we had left the tent behind and were running through the woods and towards what might be Sophia.

We soon came to a clearing with two paths spiting apart from each other at the end of it.

"What direction?" Rick asked in a hurry, eager to find Sophia.

You didn't have to ask twice.

"That way," I told the sheriff, pointing to the path on the right.

"How can you tell?" Shane questioned me as he stood up on a fallen tree.

I smirked playfully and pointed to my ear,

"Crazy genetic experiment with double the hearing of an average human, remember?"

The deputy nodded,

"Almost forgot."

"If we heard them then maybe Sophia did too!" Carol said to the group.

Glenn nodded,

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling other."

"Or signaling that they found her," Andrea offered.

"She could be ringing them herself," Rick said as we bagn to run again.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We came out of the forest, automatically stepping into a small graveyard, and just beyond that was the Church.

Rick shook his head,

"That can't be it. Has not steeple, no bells."

But nonetheless, we began running across the graveyard, and to the church.

We went around the side of the big white building, checking in the windows for walkers.

Coming around to the front of the building we found a set of red double doors that quite obviously were the church's entrance.

Daryl, Shane, Rick, and I drew our guns, and got in position to fire at any danger that might still be in the church.

Rick motioned for us to be silent, before slowly opening the doors.

Inside were three walkers, all sitting in the columns, seemingly looking at a statue of Jesus. It was a bit creepy, especially when the one women walker turned around and I saw that she had a decomposing veil covering her face, reminding me of the Corpse Bride (I also watched this on the iPhone when I first got out of Area 52).

The walkers sat up, snarling and growling at us, eyeing what could be in a very unlikely situation, their next meal.

I heard a slicing sound, and looked to see that Lori had pulled out the knife she had been carrying and handed it to Rick.

I also saw that Glenn had given Daryl his small machete, and the young man was handed a crossbow in return.

"Sam," I turned around at the sound of Andrea's voice, and saw her also giving me her machete. This was strange, because I thought that Andrea might still be mad at me because I got a gun and she didn't.

But I took the weapon from her anyways, and using my Salvation speed I ran over to Corpse Bride (that's what I've decided to call the women walker lady now) and spit her head down from her forehead to her chin, and she fell to the floor in no time at all.

I looked up to see that Daryl and Rick had also killed their walkers.

Now that the danger was gone, the rest of the group came into the church.

"Sophia!" Carol shouted out, before looking through all the columns for her lost daughter.

I saw that Daryl had walked up to the statue of Jesus, saying sarcastically,

"Yo J.C., you taking requests?"

Suddenly, the bells started ringing again, and we all rushed out the door.

We ran towards the sound, around the building, to see a speaker projecting the sound of bells.

I ran up to the box that controlled the ringing, and gave it one sharp kick that bashed it open, leaving only silence.

Daryl pointed to it,

"A timer, it's on a timer."

"I'm going to go back in for a bit," I heard Carol say before she left us.

I looked around, everyone seemed so sad. We actually thought that Sophia might be here, but she wasn't. Where _was _she?

While Carol and some of the others were in the church, I decided that I would talk to Daryl about last night.

I walked over to where I found him leaning against one of the church's other walls, checking over his crossbow for… whatever the heck he was checking it for. Dents, maybe? Or dirt? I had no idea. The guy loved his crossbow, that's for sure.

I mean, it was basically _his _special weapon, you know? Sure, I had a crossbow too that I usually used but I only had it because 1) I could use it pretty well, and 2) I was sort of in a rush to blow up a giant government base and hadn't had the patience capacity at the time to look for a weapon that would suit me. So, I just grabbed my crossbow because it looked cool, with its nice shiny black paint job _and _the arrows I found with it had gold feathers on them. My favorite color.

Still, I would throw it away in an instant if I could have a bow. I sort of watched the Hunger Games and thought Katniss's weapon was totally awesome. Damn, why didn't I get a bow?!

I walked up to Daryl, my eyes facing the ground slitely so that I could avoid his gaze.

"Hey, Daryl?"

He looked up at me,

"Yeah?"

I shifted from foot to foot, thinking of what to say

"Listen," I spoke, "I'm sorry I kissed you last night, I was tired and acting stupid," I told him, a slight blush sending the smallest bit of color to my pale white skin.

"Well that's to bad," he said, catching me by surprise, "Because I actually liked it."

I looked at him, completely confused,

"Huh?"

Daryl sighed,

"I like you, Samantha. No matter how annoyin' ya get I still like ya."

My eyes widened, Daryl liked me? He really did like me?

I smiled softly,

"I like you too," and then I kissed him again, on the cheek. Nothing big or whatever, but still.

I nodded towards the church,

"I'm going to go see how everyone is, okay?"

Daryl nodded, and I walked around to the red doors. Before opening them I looked over my shoulder to see Carl throwing Shady a stick, which the dog happily retrieved. I couldn't help but laugh slightly, despite the situation we were in.

Opening the doors, I came upon Carol finishing asking God for Sophia to be alive and safe, with Rick and Lori standing behind her. She finished her prayers, and sat down, her eyes becoming glassy with tears.

I walked over to where Carol was sitting in the first row of the columns with Lori. Leaning down, I gave her a hug before sitting on her right.

"We _will _find Sophia, I promise," I told her as I squeezed her hand. And I kept my promises.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Carol, Rick, and Lori had left the church building, and now I was all alone in the big room.

I looked up at the statue of Jesus, and sighed,

"Listen, I'm not really religious or anything, but Carol and some of the other people her are so…" I paused, "Please, _please _let us find Sophia. She's just a kid, and if you are punishing us for something, don't you think the apocalypse is enough pain and loss? Or do you just want to kill everyone and have me start a new race to inherit the Earth like I was supposed to do?" I stared at the statue, looking for… I don't know, something. I shuffled my feet unsurely, "Just let us find Sophia, okay?"

I glanced at the statue once more, before turning around and walking down the isle, and out the door. All the while hoping my prayer would come true.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We were all standing by a tree in the graveyard while Rick and Shane spoke to each other a few feet away talking about whatever the heck they were talking about.

You might be wondering; I thought you had double the hearing of a normal human, why can't you hear two people talking from just a few feet away?

Well, I _can _if I wanted to, but I try my best to respect people who aren't torturing me's privacy, so I just focus on other stuff. Like the wind blowing through the trees, the smell of the grass, how much Shady needs to be brushed (he was shedding like crazy).

"Ahem," I looked up to see that Shane and Rick had walked over, and Shane was speaking to us now,

"You're all going to follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, Samantha, you're in charge," the hunter and I nodded, and Shane began talking again, "Me and Rick, were just gonna hang back, search the area another hour or so just to be thorough."

Daryl raised an eyebrow,

"You're splitting us up. You sure?"

Shane nodded,

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you later."

"I want to stay too," Carl said to his father and his friend, "I'm her friend."

Rick looked unsure, and cast a few questioning glances at Shane and Lori, wondering if his son should go or not.

Lori stepped up to her son, taking his face in her hands,

"Just be careful, alright?"

Carl nodded,

"I will!"

"When did you start growing up?" The boy's mother asked as she embraced him in a hug. She let go, and Rick walked up to her and gave her a kiss and a hug, telling her,

"I'll be along soon enough," letting go of Lori, Rick pulled out a gun from his holster, "Here, take this. You remember how to use it?" he asked.

Lori shook her head,

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed."

Seeing the problem, I quickly took one of my guns from my side holster, then quickly walked over to the couple and handed it to Lori,

"Here, you can have one of mine," I told her.

Putting it in her back pocket, she smiled and said to me,

"Thank you Samantha."

I nodded, and looking over my shoulder I saw that Andrea was glaring at us both, angered that yet another person got a gun while she didn't.

I guess Lori noticed too, because she soon began walking with the rest of the group back into the forest.

I caught up to Daryl, walking by him at the front of the group with my usual furry companion trotting by my side.

"Ya know ya made Andrea pretty mad by givin' Lori a gun," Daryl said to me.

I cocked an eyebrow at him, smirking,

"Don't think I didn't see you pulling out your extra gun for Lori before I gave her mine!" I told him with a smile on my pale lips.

He rolled his eyes,

"Shoulda' known, you and your crazy Salvation powers."

I laughed softly,

"Hey, being a Salvation is actually pretty cool besides all the full moon blood stuff and whatever."

"I almost forgot to ask, why does that happen?" Daryl questioned me as we climbed over a fallen log, with Daryl reaching the top first and jumping down, and then taking my hand in his and helping me to the ground.

I shrugged,

"It's quite simple, really. I have double and sometimes triple the abilities of an average human, yeah?"

Daryl nodded, and I continued,

"Well, that includes age. By bleeding out every month my body replaces all my lost blood with a newer and fresher kind, and if you have good blood then you'll look younger and live longer. You get it?"

The hunter nodded again, and I smirked,

"Good, now, just to make sure that turning into a bloody mess every month is paying off, how old do you think I am?" I asked with a slightly mischievous tone in my voice.

Daryl took his eyes off the trail and studied me, and I realized that it was only now that I noticed how _blue _his eyes were. Like a dark sapphire color or something equally as beautiful.

"Twenty-four."

I was interrupted from my thoughts by Daryl's voice.

I smiled,

"Really?"

He nodded, and I grinned like the Cheshire cat,

"I'm twenty-six. I'm happy you didn't remember Doctor Jones saying that from when we were at Area 52."

Daryl smiled,

"No, I remembered."

My yellow eyes widened,

"What? No you didn't!"

"No, I remembered."

"Fine, then how old do you really think I look?"

"Not saying, don't want your ego to get to big."

"Fine! Then I'm not going to give you those new crossbow arrows that I got from Area 52 for your birthday."

"Wait, what?!"

**Yay! Oh god, you guys have no idea how crazy this story is going to get! It's going to be awesome! By the way I'm sure you noticed that I had already posted this chapter, but there were so many typos that I forgot to correct in it so this is the newer version. Don't worry, you haven't fallen into some weird alternate universe. Or have you?... Review please! :)**


	20. Sad Squirrel Dog

**Yay! Next chapter! Thank you so much for all of the awesome reviews!**

"Oh, come on Shady! Why must you be so obsessed with squirrels you crazy dog!" I said to my furry companion as he suddenly appeared out of the woods, loping to the front of the group with a squirrel in his mouth.

Leaning down and taking it from the dog's mouth was Daryl, saying to me,

"Well, at least he only likes the tails and we can always use the food," he told me as he took a short roll of rope from his pant's pocket, and began to tie it around the squirrels neck so that he could easily carry it back to the highway.

I grinned at him,

"Oh, come on! Just let Shady have his complete squirrel, just for once! Look at him! He's so cute!"

Daryl looked at my dog, he was walking next to us, and he had widened his eyes big yellow eyes, and was staring up at Daryl with the saddest look on his face that just mad me want to give him a giant hug and tell him that everything would be alright, and that he'd find another squirrel just as amazing as the other one. After all, there are many fish in the sea. Or I guess it would be many rodents in the forest in our case.

Daryl sighed, and began untying the rope from around the squirrel's neck,

"Fine, but only because we have plenty of food back on the highway!"

Catching the squirrel that Daryl had thrown him in his mouth, Shady ran off into the forest again happily chewing on his new toy.

I giggled,

"Aaawwww! Daryl, I knew that underneath your big bad boy exterior, you're just a big softy!"

Daryl looked me like I was crazy, which I might be,

"Samantha, that's not true. And I'm pretty sure the only reason why you thought that is because you're so weird."

"Damn right I am!" I snickered.

_BLAM!_

Everyone stopped in their tracks at the sound of the gunshot echoing through the forest.

"Huh," I said, "I guess the others took down a walker."

Lori shook her head,

"No, something's not right, why would they only shoot one? And you know they would never waist a bullet!" she said worriedly.

I shrugged,

"It probably took them by surprise and they had no choice but to use a gun. I'm sure they're alright!" I told the worried woman.

Lori nodded, and didn't speak. It was easy to tell she was still worried, and I knew she wouldn't be convinced Carl, Shane, and Rick were alright until she saw them herself.

We walked some more for about ten minutes or so, but eventually stopped when Lori kept looking back over her shoulder every minute.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked her.

Not turning to look at her, Lori whispered,

"It was a gunshot."

Daryl nodded,

"We all heard it."

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Lori asked the hunter with fear flashing in her eyes.

Daryl shrugged,

"Like Sam said, they probably took down a walker."

"Please, don't you two patronize me you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane, they'd do it quietly!" Lori told us sharply.

Looking at Daryl and I with wide eyes, Carol asked us,

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" she questioned worriedly.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway," Daryl said calmly, "Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori questioned.

I shrugged,

"Same as we've been doing. Follow the creek back to the highway while we look for Sophia."

Andrea nodded slightly,

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV."

Lori sighed, and nodded slightly, and began walking again, signaling to us that the discussion was over and that we could now move on.

But we were wrong, because Andrea spoke to Carol, beginning a new conversation.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through," said Andrea, "I know how you feel."

"I suppose you do. Thank you," Carol told Andrea, speaking just over a whisper with a sad smile on her face. Turning to the rest of our group, she told us with a pained voice, "The thought of her out there by herself, it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't end up like Amy." When Carol saw the look on Andrea's face, I think she realized what she had said to the now only-child, "Oh God," the grey haired women spoke quietly as she grabbed her friends hands, "That's the worst thing I've ever said!"

Andrea shook her head, brushing off the comment,

"We're all hoping and praying with you. For what it's worth."

"I'll tell you what it's worth," Daryl spoke, stepping over to the two women, "Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying."

I let in a sharp gasp, appalled at what Daryl had said. I glared, getting ready to walk over there and knock some sense into him, but then he continued,

"'Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord." he asked as he walked back to the front of the group where Shady and I stood.

I couldn't help but smile slightly at his words. Daryl had his own way of comforting people, even if it was a little gruff, and seemingly inconsiderate at first. But hey, that's just Daryl being Daryl!

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We were still walking through the forest, as usual Daryl and I were in front, with walking with everyone, switching off every few minutes.

"How much farther?" Lori asked, impatience in her voice.

Daryl shrugged,

"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies."

"Too bad we're not crows," a tired Andrea said.

No one even bothered to comment we were all so tired from walking all day. Even Shady was getting worn out, and he _loved _going for walks!

"AAAAAHHH!"

My head shot up at the sound of the scream, and I realized that Andrea wasn't with us anymore and that only she could have made the noise.

"Andrea!" Lori and I yelled at the same time.

The group ran as fast as we possibly could, jumping over bushes and branches to get to our friend.

We got there just in time to see that a walker had her pinned to the ground and was about to bite her when suddenly out of no where, came a women riding a horse with a baseball bat in hand. She swung at the walker, hitting it in the head. The monster fell to the ground, knocked out.

"Lori, Lori Grimes?" the woman asked frantically as she eyed our group, looking over all of us.

Almost automatically, the Grimes woman stepped forward,

"I'm Lori."

The mysterious girl nodded,

"Rick sent me, you've got to come now!"

"What?" Lori asked, clearly as confused as the rest of us.

"There's been an accident, Carl's been shot."

I gasped, _No, not Carl! _I thought, _Not Carl!_

"He's still alive," the woman said, "But you've got to come now," Lori looked absolutely stunned, "Rick needs you, just come!" the stranger yelled.

Coming back to reality, Lori began taking off her back pack and heading towards the horse.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Daryl shouted, "We don't know this girl! You can't get on that horse!" Of course, Lori did the exact opposite.

Looking at him, the girl asked,

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?"

I nodded,

"That's right."

"Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm you'll see the mail box, the name's Greene. Hiyah!" The lady shouted as she snapped the reins, and she and Lori rode away into the forest.

We were all in shocked silence, but it was broken as wheezing started to come from the walker, and it pulled itself off the ground.

"Shut up," Daryl said with an angry tone as he shot an arrow through its head.

The group began walking away, in a hurry to get back to the RV. I stayed behind, and walked over to the dead creature. I stepped on its face with my boot that was now completely caked in dirt and blood, and then grasped the arrow in my hand and pulled it from the bloody skull.

I knew that Daryl would want his arrow back, even if it was all dirty and covered in dead dead thing stuff.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale asked as we hopped the boundary fence that separated the highway from the forest.

"We don't know Dale," I told the old man, "Only that he's been shot and that we have to get to the Greene farm as fast as possible."

Glenn nodded,

"Yeah, all we know is that this chick rode out of nowhere on like Zorro on a horse and took Lori!"

Dale looked at Daryl now, wide eyed and confused,

"You let her?" he asked.

Daryl looked at Dale in angrily,

"Climb down out of my asshole man! Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name, and Carl's," he said as he walked away.

"I heard screams, was that you?" Dale asked Andrea as she speed-walked over to the RV.

Not answering the question, I responded for her,

"She was attacked by a walker, it was a close call."

Dale's eyes widened,

"Andrea, are you alright?" he questioned the blonde. That was most definitely a very stupid question.

Andrea gave him a look that most anyone could tell said, _I am covered in sweat, dirt, and blood after looking for a lost girl in a giant forest who we walked ten miles to search for, then I was attacked by a monster that wanted to eat my fave off AND YOU"RE ASKING IF I'M OKAY?! _Yep, things were most definitely going to be very tense between them.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Carol shook her head,

"I won't do it, we can't just leave!"

"Carol," Dale said, "The group is split, we're scattered and weak-"

"What if she comes back?" the grey haired woman argued, "And we're no here? It could happen."

Andrea nodded,

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful," she spoke, agreeing with her friend.

I tapped by chin,

"Okay, what if we put up a sign, telling Sophia where we are and the directions to the farm? We could also leave some food and water for her, a map too. How's that?" I asked the group.

Daryl nodded,

"Okay. I say tomorrow mornin' we put up some stakes, give us a chance to rig up a big sign. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV-"

"If the RV is staying, I am too," Dale said, cutting Daryl off.

"Okay," Daryl agreed.

Carol smiled at us,

"Thank you, thank you all," she said, her eyes shining with happiness.

I smiled back at her,

"You're welcome! I'll be staying here as well."

Daryl shook his head,

"No Sam, it's safer at the farm were the rest of the group is."

I glared at him slightly,

"Okay, one: I can take care of myself, and two: it's a full moon and it would be pretty hard to explain to the Greenes why I suddenly start gushing blood all over the place and _live_. Don't you think?" I asked sarcastically.

Daryl's eyes widened,

"Why didn't you say it was the full moon? Of course you're going to stay here then!" he told me with that protective sound in his voice again.

Dale nodded,

"Yes, Sam. Just tell us what you need and we can get it for, okay?" the old man asked me kindly.

I smiled softly,

"Okay, thank you."

Glenn stepped forward, looking left out of all the action and saying,

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm-"

"Not you Glenn, you're going," Dale told the young man, cutting someone off for the second time that day, "Take Carol's Cherokee."

Glenn scoffed,

"Me? Why is it always me?" he asked angrily.

Dale looked at Glenn, telling him exactly what he had to do,

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people, and see what's going on. But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse, he has a _very _serious blood infection. Get him to that farm, see if they have any antibiotics, because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke," Dale told Glenn as he pointed at T-Dog.

I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to see that Daryl was over at his brother's motorcycle that he rode now. He took a rag of the handle that I guess Dale had put there, and then reached into the saddlebag, taking out large zip-lock bag filled with pill bottles.

Walking back over to us, he through the rag at Dale,

"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle," he told the old man as he put the bag on the hood of a car, opening it, "Why'd you wait 'til now to say anything? Got my brother's stash," he said as he began to take out the bottles, "Crystal, X, don't need that. Some kickass painkillers," he spoke, throwing a bottle of them to Glenn. He shuffled through the bag some more until he found what he was looking for, and through it to Dale, "Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither, its first class. Merle got the clap on occasion," he said to us, before walking away.

Dale was looking at the medicine gladly, smiling at the pills that could help T-Dog with the pain of his injuries. He began to walk over to his injured friend, but stopped and looked back at me,

"Remember, Sam, just ask and I'll get you whatever you need, okay?"

I smiled,

"Alright, I just need some old blankets so I don't get the car I'm staying in to dirty," I told him.

He nodded,

"Of course, whatever you need."

While he went over to T-Dog, I decided to find Daryl and give him his arrow back from the zombie he had previously shot today.

I walked into the maze of cars in the direction he had gone off towards, and soon found him leaning against a dusty red truck looking drinking a bottle of water.

"Got your arrow," I said as I leaned next to him on the car, twirling the arrow in between my black-gloved fingers before stopping and handing it to him.

Taking it from me, he said,

"Thank you," before going silent again.

We were quiet for a while, not speaking at all. It was peaceful, but I began to try to think of something to say, but Daryl beat me to it,

"I'm staying with you tonight, when you bleed out."

My eyes widened,

"What? No! It's disgusting, and it lasts a pretty long time, and-"

"It's not a question, Sam. I'm staying with you," he told me.

I looked at the ground, avoiding his gaze.

"Hey, look at me," Daryl said.

When I didn't respond, he took my chin between his fingers, making my head go his way,

"Sam," he told me, "Whatever you say won't make me change my mind. No matter what you do, or how you act, I'll always be there for you. You have to understand that, okay?" He asked me.

I sighed, and smiled softly at him,

"Alright, you can come."

**Done! Next chapter will be up soon! I'm sorry this one took a while to get up :( I will try to have 21 up sooner than this one, m'kay? Thank you for all your support on this story! Review please! :D**


	21. Cool Older Sister

**Yay! Next chapter!**

I woke up to feel something warm and strong next to me. Not wanting to start my day yet, I just snuggled closer to it, trying to fall back asleep.

"Hey, Sam, you up yet?" I voice asked me softly.

I moaned,

"No…"

The voice sighed,

"Come on Sam, you have to get up now, open you eyes."

I gave up, and forced my eyelids to move, which was harder than usual for some reason.

When I finally got my eyes open, I saw that the warm thing next to me was Daryl, and that I was lying in his lap. We were in the van that I'd been sleeping in, but I barely recognized it. It had turned red, and there was so much of it that my eyes started to hurt.

"Sam?" Daryl asked, "Can I move you now?"

I was confused about why he would ask, but I wasn't fully awake yet, so I just nodded,

"Yeah, sure."

Red, there was so much red, and that was the last thing I saw before I slipped back into unconsciousness…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I woke up again, to feel myself being carried out of the car bridal-style by Daryl. He had wrapped me in a soft brown blanket, and he hugged me closer to him when we stepped out of the van.

I felt the cool morning air on my face, and strangely, warm sloppy licks on my one hand that had escaped the blanket's warmth.

I turned my head, to see my favorite dog,

"Yeh Shady," I told him as I closed my eyes and rubbed his head.

"Oh my god!" I heard a women shout.

I opened my eyes to see Andrea rushing towards Daryl and I with a scared look on her face.

I looked at her questioningly,

"What is it?" I asked her.

Not answering me, she looked to Daryl,

"Come on, bring her in the RV!"

Daryl nodded, and followed Andrea to the large vehicle with Shady at his heals.

Carol was inside, sitting at the table drinking a glass of water, but when she saw me she stopped in mid-sip.

"Come on," she said to Daryl, "Put her on the bed."

Obeying them, Daryl took me down the short hall way to the RV's bed, and lay me down on it.

I put my crossed my arms over my chest,

"Okay, seriously, what's going on? I feel _fine. _Just a bit tired, that's all!"

Carol glanced away nervously,

"Well…It's just that…"

I raised an eyebrow,

"What?"

She sighed, and out of her pocked she took out a small mirror, which she handed to me.

Looking at my reflection, I could see why everyone was so freaked out.

I was completely caked in dried blood, not the tiniest hint of my skin showing at all. My now red hair was slicked back and tangled across my scalp, and I began to wonder how I would ever get some of those knots out.

"Oh…" I said softly, "So…Uh… Yeah…" I didn't really know what to say exactly, so I just mumbled stuff. Hey! That can be my new motto! When in doubt; mumble stuff and hope the awkward situation will go away. That's pretty good, right?

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

I stepped put of the RV dressed in my black skinny jeans, my brown hiking boots, my black gloves, an old brown leather vest, and an army green tank top from the bag of clothes I had gotten the first day we arrived on the highway. I had used a washcloth to wipe off all the blood, which was _a lot _harder than it sounds, and then taken a bucket of water that I washed my hair out in with some random shampoo I had found the other day in one of the broken down cars.

I looked around, seeing that everyone was getting ready to go to the farm.

I walked up to Daryl who was putting things in his motorcycle's saddlebags,

"Hey there," I said to him.

He turned around from his work, looking at me with a slight smile on his face,

"Well, you look better."

I giggled,

"So are you saying that I'm not pretty when drenched in blood?"

Smirking he told me,

"No, you're always pretty, just prettier when you ain't all bloody."

I stuck my tongue out at him playfully in response,

"Whatever, are we ready to go now?" I asked.

He nodded,

"Yeah, you're gonna ride with Carol in your Jeep."

"Aaawwwee!" I pouted, "But I barely ever got to drive motorcycles at Area 52!"

I saw Daryl's eyes widen slightly, and I swear I saw a flash of fear go through them as he leaned a bit closer to the motorcycle in a protective manor.

"Listen, Sam," he told me, "I don't mean to be rude to you or anything, but there is no way in hell that I would ever let you ride Merle's motorcycle, because you are most definitely the worst driver the world has ever known."

We just stood there for a few moments jut staring at each other, making this quite a bit of an awkward situation.

Finally I giggled, which Daryl seemed a bit surprised at,

"Don't worry, I know that driving stuff is most definitely _not _my area of expertise, and the only one who can put up with it is Shady," I said as I looked over at my dog- what the? Where the heck did he get that squirrel? Oh whatever, not like my life could get much crazier. I shrugged my shoulders and said to Daryl, "Anyways," I continued, "I was just suggesting that I could ride on the motorcycle _with _you. That okay?" I asked, hoping the answer would be yes.

Daryl seemed a bit uncertain, but he finally just sighed and told me,

"Fine, just be careful. And don't do anything bad, okay?" he asked me.

I nodded happily,

"Yes! Thank you so much!" I squealed as I gave him a quick hu- how the heck did Shady get three new squirrels so fast?! Creepy…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We drove down a long dusty dirt road that lead to a big white house that I saw Rick, Lori, T-Dog, Glenn, and several other people who I suppose owned the farm come out of. We parked on the lawn about twenty-ish feet away from the house, and as soon as the motorcycle stopped moving I jumped off, the entire time worrying about what had happened to Carl while I was gone.

"Is he okay?" I asked Rick, trying my best not to show how worried I was.

Lori smiled happily at me,

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people, and-"

"And Shane," Rick interrupted, "We'd lost Carl if not for him."

I took a quick look over at Shane, and saw that he was wearing a pair of overalls that were _way _to big on himand made him look like a complete dork. Normally I would playfully make fun of his sense of style, but I had more important things to do at the moment, like hugging people.

I smiled as I walked up to Lori and wrapped my arms around her, so so _so _thankful that Carl was okay. Even Shady seemed to get it, and began to start wagging his tail and licking Rick and Lori's hands in happiness.

"How'd it happen?" Dale asked Rick.

"Hunting accident," the Grimes man responded, "That's all, just a stupid accident."

Walking up to Rick, I eagerly asked him,

"When can we see him?"

Rick nodded towards the house,

"He's resting right now, but you can check in on him if you'd like."

"Thank you," I said to Rick as I hurried into the house. Before entering, I nodded in thanks to the Greenes, I believe there name was, who returned my gesture with smiles.

I opened the house's door, and hurried inside. Spotting a staircase, I quickly ran up it and onto the second floor where I then began to open random doors trying to find the one that lead to the room Carl was in.

On my fifth door, I found him, and I couldn't help but gasp a bit when I saw the poor boy. His skin was pale white, and his hair was slicked back with sweat.

I sat down on the white-sheeted bed, and slowly ran my fingers through Carl's hair.

I suddenly felt him begin to stir, and he soon opened his pale blue eyes to meet my yellow ones.

"S-Sammy?" he whispered.

I smiled,

"Yeah kid, I'm here."

"Shady too?"

It was then that I heard a low whine from next to the bed, and next to me I saw the familiar shadowy black coat of my dog. I guess I had been so eager to see Carl I hadn't even noticed that Shady had come along with me.

I patted the spot on the bed next to me, signaling to Shady that he could come up, which he gladly complied to. He lay down, and crawled over to Carl, all though it was more of a wiggle for he was wagging his tail so much.

He licked Carl's face lovingly, earning a soft laugh from the boy and myself.

"Hey Sammy?" Carl asked.

Softly, I said,

"Yeah kid?"

"It was a full moon last night, wasn't it?"

I paused, thinking about what had happened last night. I didn't remember much, just that it was horribly painful and all I could see was red.

"What about it?" I asked Carl softly, brushing away a hair that had fallen into his face.

He looked up at me questioningly,

"Were you okay?"

I nodded and smiled,

"Yeah, I was fine. The only problem is that I'm just a bit more tired than usual, but I'll be fine tomorrow. And I'm sure you'll be too in a few days, and then I can keep my promise and teach you how to use a knife and gun," I told him with a smirk, bringing a big smile to his face.

"Really?! I get to have a gun too?" he said in amazement.

Winking I told him,

"Yeah, just don't tell your parents," I paused, "Just kidding, you have to ask them."

Carl looked at me desperately,

"But they _always _say no! Can't you just like, train me in secret or something?"

I shrugged my shoulders,

"Sorry kid. But you have to ask them. But before you do I'll talk to them about it, okay?" I asked him. He nodded, and I continued on, "I don't see why you shouldn't be aloud to use a gun, it's the zombie apocalypse! If you were my kid, you'd be able to kill a walker from a hundred feet away, right in the eye!"

Carl laughed, although it was more of a raspy cough,

"Really?"

"Really."

"You know Sammy," Carl said, "I don't think I'd want you to be my mom."

I was a bit hurt, I thought I might be a pretty cool mom!

"I wouldn't want you as a mom," Carl continued, "Because you're already like my cool older sister."

Woohoo! Never mind about being the kids mom, I'm his big sister! Yeah! I grinned widely,

"Really?" I asked.

Carl nodded,

"Really."

I laughed,

"Okay kid, cool older sister it is!"

I sat up from the bed, and pulled up the bed's covers to Carl's neck,

"Sleep tight kid, okay?"

"'Kay," said Carl as he shut his eyes.

I ruffled his hair and stepped out the door with Shady by my side.

_Hmm, _I thought, _Samantha James; genetic experiment, zombie hunter, and cool older sister. Yep, I could get used to that!_

**DONE! Warning: following chapters will be totally crazy and awesome. :) Review please! XD**


	22. Pie Math, Not Pi Math

**Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been around much lately, school's been crazy!**

**mks 12 98: ****If I were normal, then yeah I probably would just have Sam go out into the woods and use her super hearing to find Sophia. But reality is boring and finding Sophia can not be that easy, so yeah.**

**Violet:**** 1- I miss Norman Reedus the Snail so much that I'm crying a bit right now. 2- (on question 3) there are no stupid questions, only stupid people. Your sickness is doing something to your brain to make you ask a question so idiotically. Lol jk u cray cray :P**

**NOW ON WITH THE STORY! :) :) :)**

I yawned, stretching my arms above my head. I looked around to find myself back in my tent with Shady curled up by my side, twitching every once and a while, signaling that he was dreaming.

I got out of my sleeping bag and crawled over to my clothing duffle bag, and got out a pair of black skinny jeans and a teal tank-top which I put my leather vest over, sliding on my new favorite black gloves, and then completing the outfit with usual my dirty brown hiking boots.

"Shady, emit ot teg pu," I said to the big German Shepherd as I unzipped my tent and stepped outside into the light.

I heard rustling behind me, and saw that Shady had gotten up and was now right by my side. I smiled and scratched behind his ears.

I walked over to Lori and Carol who were currently hanging laundry and talking about dinner.

"Hey there," I said with a smile as I reached into one of the baskets and began to help them with the chore.

Carol smiled at me,

"Good morning Sam, how'd you sleep?" she asked.

I laughed,

"Like a rock! I can barely even remember what happened yesterday!"

"Well I'd expect you to," Lori said as she hung up a shirt, "You went to bed around 2:30 PM!"

I shrugged,

"I guess I'm still recovering from my bleed out the other night, I'll be find today!"

"Are you sure?" Carol asked me with concern in her voice, "Maybe you should just take it easy for one more day."

I looked at her, about to say no, but when I looked at her she just seemed so worried about me, and she was always so nice and kind to, well, everyone!

I sighed,

"Alright, but just one more day and that's it, alright?" I told her.

She smiled softly,

"Alright, thank you Sam."

"Your welcome," I told her, "Do you know where everyone else is?" I questioned the two women.

"They're all over there, getting another search ready for Sophia," Lori said, nodding over to the woods at the edge of our camp where the others were huddled around a map on top of a car.

"Thanks," I said to Lori and Carol as I quickly hung up the pair of pants I had been holding before walking over to the rest of the group.

"Alright, everyone's getting new search grids today," I heard Rick say as I approached the car.

I nodded to them,

"Morning, getting new search parties set up for Sophia?" I asked.

"Yes," Rick told me, "Will you be joining us?"

I shook my head,

"No, Carol convinced me to rest for one more day."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Daryl had let out a small sigh of relief.

"What happened?" A young man, Jimmy I believe his name was asked me curiously.

_Not too much, _I thought_, I just gushed out blood through every pore in my body and couldn't even scream because my mouth felt like it was filled with thick, disgusting, salty liquid-oh wait, it was! _I wanted to tell the boy. I didn't, of course.

"Oh, nothing much," I said, "I just had a bit of a cold. Only a stuffy nose and I light headache, I'm fine now!" I reassured Jimmy.

He nodded,

"Alright then, I hope you feel better."

"Now," Rick spoke as he smoothed out the map, "If Sophia made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found she might have gone further East than we've been so far-"

"I'd like to help," Jimmy interrupted Rick, "I know the area pretty well and stuff."

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick questioned.

Jimmy nodded,

"Yeah, He said I should ask you."

I cocked my head to the side slightly, studying the young man. He seemed a bit _to _nervous when he was talking to us, and when I listened closely I could hear his heartbeat speed up. He was lying…

I didn't seem like anyone noticed, for all Rick said was,

"Alright then, thanks."

I sighed, don't get me wrong, I _love _my group so much that they don't even register as a group anymore, but a family who I would do anything to protect, but sometimes they just didn't pay enough attention to the little details.

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me," I heard Shane say from the passenger seat in the car, distracting me from my thoughts, "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."

I frowned at him,

"Does anybody include her?" I asked.

Daryl nodded,

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high," he said, holding up his hand to about Sophia-height.

"It's a good lead!"

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again," Andrea and Rick agreed.

Daryl scoffed,

"No maybe about it, I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the hole grid. If's she's up there I'll spot her."

T-Dog nodded,

"Good idea, maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."

Rick raised an eyebrow,

"Chupacabra?"

"You never heard this?" Dale asked. When Rick shook his head he continued, "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and saw a chupacabra."

I looked at Jimmy and saw that he was trying to muffle a laugh, but he couldn't help but smile. This, of course, made Daryl angry.

"What are you braying at Jackass?" he questioned.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow,

"So, you believe in a blood sucking dog?"

"You believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl snapped back.

I sighed,

"I bet the chupacabra is just some poor little puppy that has a genetic disease. Oh! Now I have the urge to go out into the woods and hug a chupacabra! I bet they're so cute!" I squealed as everyone looked at me like I was crazy, which as I've said before, I probably was.

Andrea shook her head with a totally straight face,

"I have no comment on that."

Of course, this is the part where everyone starts to laugh so much I was afraid we might attract walkers.

"Well, good luck on your search, I'm going to go check on Carl now," I told the group when we finally calmed down.

Rick nodded,

"Alright, we'll see you later."

I smiled as I began walking towards the house. I wonder how Carl would react to this whole situation…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**No POV**

An arrow whizzed through the air as Daryl shot a squirrel that had previously been running up a tree. He grabbed the squirrel and his arrow as he road down the trail, always keeping an eye out for Sophia.

He looked down the ridge where there was a small stream, spotting something in the mud that most people wouldn't have noticed.

He got of the horse he had been riding and tied it to a nearby tree, and then quickly headed down the small cliff.

He quickly reached the bottom and walked over to the thing in the mood. As he got closer to it, he automatically knew what it was. Sophia's doll. He knew that something quite dramatic must have happened to make the little girl let go of her beloved doll. After all, the thing was practically supper-glued to her hand.

He looked around, wading into the water slightly,

"Sophia!" he shouted into the woods, hoping she might be near enough to hear him.

When he got no answer, he began to head back up the hill, and when he reached the top he quickly got back on the horse, eager to head back to camp and show the group his newfound evidence.

He silently road through the forest, only stopping when the horse got slightly spooked by a flock of birds, but they continued on once he had calmed the large animal down.

He didn't expect the rattle snake in the path, neither did the horse.

The snake hissed, and the horse reared with a frightened whinny, sending Daryl into the air, and down the rocky cliff to its bottom. With an arrow straight through his side.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Samantha POV**

I was in the kitchen with Lori, Carol, and Andrea, helping them make dinner for the Greenes.

They had told me their plan, and I agreed to help, but only on one condition: dessert must be pie. Lots and lots of pie.

That's why I was currently mixing together three different kinds of melted chocolate to add to pour into a piecrust along with several other ingredients before I put it into a wood burning cook stove where five other pies were already cooking.

Yep, even in the zombie apocalypse I manage to have pies! But then again, when have I not? I pretty much only started living when this damn thing started! Oh whatever, I'm going to see how many pies I can make before dinner which is in… eight hours! Which means I'll make… hmm… let me see… Crazy Girl + Pie Obsession + Eight Hours of Free Time = A Lot of Pie!

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**No POV**

Daryl grunted and moaned in pain as he fell down the cliff for the second time that day, and finally from the great amount of blood loss and exhaustion, he began to slowly fall into unconsciousness.

But before his eyes shut, he saw something.

Out of a large clump of bushes about twenty feet away from where he lay on the dirt-covered ground, came Sophia. On the back of a chupacabra.

**I'm soooooo sorry this chapter took so long to get up! But I promise I'll do my best to write faster, alright? Please review!**


	23. Marceline the Chupacabra Queen

**Neeeext chapter!**

**Daryl POV**

_I was surrounded by darkness, not really anywhere at all, and Merle was in front of me. And he had two hands. _

"_Well hey there, little brother!" he said in his usual mocking tone, "Why are you still asleep?"_

_I raised an eyebrow,_

"_What?" _

"_You gotta get up and meet the chupacabra," my older brother responded. _

_I shook my head,_

"_You aren't making any sense," I told him. _

_He smirked,_

"_The chupacabra, you have to meet it. Or are you to chicken? You always were the weaker one of the two of us. Maybe it's that Sam girl you've been hanging around lately?" _

_I thought back to Sam, smart, caring, crazy Sam. The one who was basically my girlfriend._

"_What about her?" I asked Merle. _

_My brother spoke again, but this time his voice was quite different. It was higher-pitched, and girlish sounding,_

"_Hey, sleeping beauty!" he shouted, "Wake up already!" _

My eyes shot open, and I found myself in a very unlikely place. I was lying on a slightly dusty bed with dirty green sheets underneath me. My shoes, socks, and shirt had been taken off, revealing the arrow going through my side.

But the biggest surprise, was that there was a little girl, with short strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and a blue t-shirt standing by my bedside.

It was Sophia.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Sam POV**

I looked around the Greene's kitchen, smiling proudly at my work. In the past four hours I had made _at least _twenty pies.

There were cherry, vanilla, banana, blueberry, and cream flavored ones, along with so many others I had forgot which kinds I made.

I laughed quietly to myself. I wonder how everyone would react if I made a total of fifty pies…

**No POV**

Daryl looked wide-eyed at the girl the group had been searching so hard to find for. She looked relatively clean, with only a few small smudges of dirt here and there. And, of course, it seemed as though she had found her doll in Daryl's things, as she was clutching it tightly, not minding at all that it was covered in mud.

"Sophia!" I shouted, "What are you doing here? You're mother's been worried sick about you!"

She shifted shyly from foot to foot,

"W-well, I kinda got lost, and so I couldn't find my way back to camp."

I raised an eyebrow,

"And you've been living here, wherever here is, on your own, for the past week?" I questioned her.

She shook her head,

"Um, no, not really. I actually made a new friend a few days ago."

"What? Who?"

Sophia turned to face the far corner of the room, which was concealing whatever she was looking at in shadows,

"Marcey," she said, "You can come out now!"

Out of the shadows stepped another girl, who looked to be the same age of Sophia. She had short, wavy black hair, peach skin with a splatter of freckles over her face, unbelievably bright blue eyes, and was dressed in a green shirt that had a picture of Yoda on it, with an unzipped dark purple and black striped jacket over it, and also some blue skinny jeans and muddy black sneakers. I almost missed the little scar in the corner of her bottom right lip, that was about the size of a staple snapped in half.

She walked up to my bedside, and looked as though she was going to introduce herself to me, when her eyes wandered to the opposite side of the room, and a confused look came over her face,

"How the heck did that cat get in here?"

I turned my head to where she was looking, but there was nothing there.

Suddenly, there was a sharp, burning pain in my side as my arrow was being ripped out of me.

"What the hell?!" I shouted as my hand flew to my bleeding side.

Sophia covered her hand over her mouth and turned around in disgust, saying to the seemingly very violent little girl,

"Oh my gosh! Marcey why did you have to do that?" she squealed in disgust.

Marceline shrugged,

"Hey, you're the one who said it would be rude to pull it out in his sleep!" she argued, acting much like Sam the way she twirled my arrow between her fingers.

My eyes widened, but my face turned soon into that of a glare,

"You were going to pull that arrow out of me, _in my sleep_?" I asked Sophia's friend darkly.

She didn't seem to get the hint that I was _extremely _angry with her, because all she did was smile sweetly, nod her head and say,

"Yep!"

Okay, I officially _hated _this kid now,

"You know, you probably could have _asked me _if I actually _wanted _the arrow pulled out!"

"He's right, you know," Sophia agreed.

Marceline sighed,

"Fine, I won't do it again! You happy?" she asked with her arms crossed over her chest in annoyance.

"Yeah, you're good!" Sophia told her with a smile.

Marceline scurried over to her friend and hugged her,

"Thank you! You're most definitely the best friend I have ever had!"

When they were done hugging, I asked them a question that had been nagging at my mind for a while now,

"How did you two get me here?"

The two girls froze, and Sophia started mumbling things I couldn't make out,

"We-well, muruh, elho, unm-"

"We dragged you here on a sled but then the walkers attacked us so we beat them up and carried you the rest of the way here because we used the sled thingy to bash a walkers brain open and Sophia convinced me not to bring you back here on it because apparently dead dead people brain getting into highly life-threatening wounds is bad!" Marceline said with an exasperated sigh.

Sophia nodded,

"Yeah! That's exactly what happened! And now once you've healed you can bring us back to the group!" she said enthusiastically.

I shook my head,

"No way, we're going back now. You're mother's been miserable without you," I told Sophia.

Marceline raised an eyebrow,

"Dude, you just got and arrow pulled out through your side and you're going to walk all the way back to wherever the heck your guys's camp is?" she questioned me.

I smirked,

"That's right kid," I told her as I slid of the bed, drawing in a sharp breath as I felt a sudden pain in my side, but I ignored it and kept standing.

I looked up at Sophia and Marceline to see that they were now wearing two large backpacks that seemed to be stuffed to the brim with probably clothes and food, Sophia with a black one while Marceline's was a hot pink color.

"How'd you two get those so fast?" I asked them as I knelled to the floor to get my shirt which I quickly ripped the sleeves off of so that I could tie them around where the arrow had been, and hopefully stop some of the bleeding.

Marceline shrugged,

"I'm just a fast runner. It probably helps that I've been doing gymnastics since I was three," she boasted proudly.

Sophia nodded,

"Yeah, and she says she'll teach me how to do a flip!"

"That's nice," I said as I slung my crossbow over my shoulder. I didn't really know what else to say exactly.

Marceline smiled proudly,

"I'll probably be an awesome coach 'cause so far gone to every competition so that's a total of about 58 gold medals! It's so great! And then this year my mom was going to enroll me into a private school that had AWESOME sport programs, and it was so cool! But then the zombie apocalypse came, and my dreams were shattered. My soul was shredded as all my hopes and dreams lay broken on the floor of my heart that had been turned into a black hole of depression, like it had been eaten by a stampede of rainbow elephants hungry for blood and bananas! They're a good source of potassium!" she sobbed.

I raised an eyebrow at that last part, and I think anyone would agree with me that there was something seriously wrong with that child. And now I had to walk all the way back to the farm with her…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

We were still walking, and somehow Marceline had gone from talking about pasta to the fabric of time and space in about three minutes. In case any of you haven't noticed, that's pretty hard to do, and the kid wasn't even trying!

"So then Bob's looking at Sarah as she falls into the black hole, and then she just freezes! But she's actually still falling in her own time like nothing's happened at all! People know this because of lightning, and mirrors! Hey, if lightning hit a mirror do you think it would bounce of? No, it'd probably just burst into flames and blow up! OMG once I saw a picture of a kitten, but it was made out of a toxic explosion! How great is that? My friend had a cat named Oreo, and it was evil! It tried to eat me, so I had to hide in my friend's bathroom for an hour before she finally got her cat away from me! Oh, this one time I got stuck in a bathroom at McDonalds, so I had to crawl under the stall door! Then I got sad so I went swimming, and I thought I saw an octopus but it was really just this kelp stuff! OMG have you ever had nori? I totally freaking love nori! Its like salty green paper…"

Yes, this was moat definitely one of the worst days of my life. And we had only been walking for ten minutes.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Samantha's POV**

I finished making my pies.

On every flat surface in the Greene's kitchen was pie upon pie, covered in tinfoil to keep in all their delicious pie warmth. I lost track of how much pie I made somewhere around hour two, so I had probably made enough pie to last us a few months.

Deciding that I had done enough baking work for today, I decided to go check on the rest of the group to see how they were doing.

I walked out of the house and quickly arrived at the camp, almost not even noticing that Shady had suddenly appeared at my side and had begun to lick my hand.

"Yeh, Shady," I said as I pet his head lovingly.

Spotting Andrea sitting on top of the RV, I decided to go see how she was doing.

I walked up to the back of the large vehicle where it's ladder was, and quickly climbed up it.

Hearing my feet hit the metal surface, Andrea whirled around with a surprised and scared look on her face. But seeing that it was only me, she quickly relaxed,

"Oh, hi Sam. I thought you were a walker for a moment there!" she told me with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes playfully,

"Yes, that makes perfect sense! A walker totally has enough brain power to not think about eating people for a few moments and figure out how to climb a ladder, because it's so logical that it could wander into this highly protected camp, kill everyone so silently you would think it was a ninja, and sneak up on you!"

Andrea smiled at me,

"Of course, it makes perfect sense."

"You bet it does!"

We both began laughing loudly, doing our best to stop it, but only making it go on more.

Trying to focus her attention on something else, Andrea look away from me, he vision focusing on the tree line that stood a few hundred yards away.

I, on the other hand was crouching on the floor and clutching my stomach from all the pains I was giving it from laughing so hard. The sad thing was, my joke really wasn't that funny! This is what the apocalypse has reduced me to! Why World why?!

"Walker! Walker!"

I was brought out of my thoughts at the sound of Andrea's shouting as she stood up from the chair she had been sitting in.

Forgetting all about what had been going on, I stood up off the ground and quickly pulled one of my pistols out of its holster. I probably wouldn't actually use it, but it just made me feel safer. And yes, even though I am invincible to zombie bites and I can heal like mad, I still get freaked out whenever I see a walker so close to my group. What if one of them got bit and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Is it just the one?" I heard Rick shout from the ground.

Grabbing some binoculars that had been sitting next to her chair, Andrea brought them up to her eyes and peered through them,

"I bet I can nail it from here," she said as she dropped the binoculars and replaced them with a shotgun.

I looked over at Rick who was shaking his head,

"No, Andrea put the gun down!" he commanded her.

Noticing that Andrea hadn't answered Rick's first question, I shoved my gun into its holster and snatched up the binoculars and looked through them.

It was very hard to see, as it just so happened that the sun was shining in my direction, and I could barely make out what I believed were three blurry figures walking towards camp, one limping slightly.

"I think there's three! Might be two!" I yelled to Rick, not taking my eyes away from the threat.

The zombies had started to move to the left a bit more, and I could suddenly see what was really there. It was Daryl, and Sophia. I was so over whelmed in happiness to see that my boyfriend had returned with one of the sweetest, most adorable children in the world, and another little girl! Then I remembered that the group thought they were flesh-eating monsters and were going to kill them. And the people who had all of the weapons to do that were halfway across the field, running towards them.

Not even thinking that I might break my legs, I jumped off the roof of the RV, bending my legs slightly when I hit the ground to absorb impact.

"WAIT! STOP!" I screamed as I began running towards Rick, Shane, and T-Dog.

I willed my legs to move faster and faster as the others got closer to Daryl, their weapons raised.

"STOP!" I shouted at them as I suddenly stopped, standing in front of them. Even though I could run at twice or triple the speed of a human, it still took a while to get all the way across the field.

Shane glared at me,

"Sam? What are you doing? We have to go kill the walkers before they reach camp and bit someone!" he told me angrily.

I shook my head,

"No, they aren't walkers! It's Daryl and Sophia! He found her!" I said to them happily.

It was perfect timing to say that too, because all of a sudden we heard a joyful scream,

"SAMMY!" it echoed from across the field.

I turned around to see a familiar little girl with strawberry blonde hair, and a ratty old doll clasped in her hand running towards me.

I smiled widely as she got closer and closer until she was right upon us, and leapt into my open arms. I hugged her to me tightly as she buried her head in my shoulder, so relieved that she was okay.

It took the others a moment to really grasp the situation, before they realized that Sophia was here and alive.

"Are you okay? Not bit or anything?" Rick questioned her as he kneeled down to the ground.

Looking up to him, she shook her head,

"No, I'm fine Mister Grimes. I just got a little thorn stuck in my thumb, but Marcey helped me pull it out, so I'm good!" she said happily.

I was confused,

"Who's Marcey?" I asked her.

"The most annoying brat the world has ever known, that's who."

I looked up to see Daryl standing next to me with a girl around Sophia and Carl's age in what I recognized as a green Yoda t-shirt.

I smiled, and leapt up to hug Daryl,

"Yay you're back! I missed- oh my god why are you bleeding?" I shrieked when I saw how bloody his shirt was.

He shrugged,

"I'm fine, I just got an arrow through my side, I'll be fine," he told me as my eyes widened.

"Fine? FINE? No Daryl you will not be fine you got an arrow through you're side you are not fine! You could get an infection, or die, or-" I was cut off by Daryl wrapping his hands around my waist and pulling me into a deep kiss.

When we finally pulled away from each other, Shane, Sophia, T-Dog, and Rick were all staring at us in surprise.

T-Dog raised an eyebrow,

"So, are you two, like-"

"Yes, Daryl is my boyfriend and I am his girlfriend. Problem?" I asked, daring him to say yes.

He quickly shook his head,

"Nope, no problem at all. Perfectly fine!"

"It better be," I said quietly with a low growl in my though I meant it to be jokingly, T-Dog seemed to get a bit freaked out.

"Hellooo! Has everyone forgotten about me?" an annoyed voice asked.

I suddenly remembered the new company we had, and turned to look at Sophia's new friend who she called 'Marcey'.

"Hey, I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam or Sammy if you want!" I told her kindly, "It's pretty obvious that you've already met Daryl, and then over there is Shane, Rick, and T-Dog. There are more people back at camp that you'll meet soon."

She grinned,

"Great to meet you! The name's Marceline Emma Monroe. First name's spelled the same way Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time spells it, and because of it my friends called my Marceline the Chupacabra Queen 'cause I like chupacabras WAY more than vampires, and-" she suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, stunned for some reason.

"Hey, Marceline, are you okay?" I questioned her in a worried tone.

I took a few moments for her to respond, and when she did it came out in a soft stutter,

"Y-your eyes. Th-they're _yellow_!" she exclaimed.

Trying to act normal, I told her,

"Oh yeah, they're contacts!"

She shook her head vigorously,

"No, no! You're lying!"

Okay, I was getting worried about her now,

"No, I'm telling the truth, my eyes aren't yellow, I'm only wearing contacts," I said calmly.

All of a sudden, she snatched my right arm, and pulled down the sleeve of my glove all the way to my wrist, revealing my thick black tattoos and scarred arms.

Marceline gasped as I hurriedly pulled up my glove.

"Y-you're like me! I knew I couldn't be the only one!" the girl giggled happily.

I stared at her in surprise, as did the rest of the group.

"What are you talking about?" I questioned her.

And then, it happened.

Her peach skin began to turn into a light grey color, and her face began to stretch out to become dog-like, as her neck elongated as her spine curved, and lengthened until she grew a long tail, and dropped to all fours with her long legs and arms that ended in lizard-like feet. Not only that but her eyes had turned the signature golden-yellow of a Salvation, and there was a faint tattoo on her right arm.

"Holy fucking shit," Shane whispered. Personaly, I couldn't have said it better myself.

The beast stared down at us from at least seven feet at the shoulder, eyes glowing brightly.

"I am Salvation Project Experiment 72626955," she spoke out to us, "Younger sister to Salvation Project Experiment 72626842. But I guess you call her Sam now, don't you?"

**I am so sorry I haven't updated lately! But it was my birthday, and I got a walking dead charm bracelet (you can get them on ), and then it was 3 days until school ended and I was stressing out about finals so I listened to 'I Knew You Were Trouble' for OVER ELEVEN HOURS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. But I'm back now and it's summer so YAY ME! Review please :3**


	24. The Letter

**Yay! Next chapter! I would like to thank my BFF demonicangel38 (Violet), for helping me write this chapter. And by helping I mean that she kept stealing my computer and writing HER version of this story, and I included some parts of it in here! :) Thank you Vi you rock! Now on with the story!**

Oh my fucking god (pardon what people call 'French' even though I think its from ancient England and NOT France) there is a seven-foot tall chupacabra standing less than five feet in front of me claiming to be my sister.

"It's the thing that I saw in the forest when I was squirrel hunting!" Daryl said quietly as he stared in awe at the creature, who now seemed _very _pissed off at my boyfriend.

"_Thing?_" she seethed, "I am not a _thing_! I am Marceline the Chupacabra Queen Emma Monroe previously know as Salvation Project Experiment 72626955 and best friend to Sophia who actually knew about this entire situation the entire time!" she told us in one breath quite rapidly.

"Sam?" Rick asked, trying to stay calm, "Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

I nodded, in quite a bit of a daze,

"Um, yeah, okay, so- alright I have no idea what the hell is going on and at the moment I am totally confused and freaking out because this is defying the laws of reality!" I said frantically, "You know, I think this would all be A LOT easier if you could maybe just change back to your more human form please if you wouldn't mind!"

Marceline looked at me, with what I was pretty sure was embarrassment, as it seemed that her leathery grey face was getting a slight purple tinge to it.

Shifting from foot to foot, she looked to Sophia, who motioned for me to lean down so she could whisper something in my ear,

"Her clothes ripped so if she changes back to her normal form she'll be naked, but she does have clothes in her backpack," she told me quietly.

My eyes turned to look at the ground around Marceline's feet, to see her shredded clothes scattered around her in field's thick green grass.

I nodded,

"Okay then, well, I have no idea what to do at the moment and Rick's the leader so he's in charge now!" I said as I pointed over to Rick who looked a bit startled.

Rubbing his hand over his mouth in thought, he said to us,

"All right, Marceline I guess you can go change in the forest and then when you're done you can come and meet everyone else, alright?"

She nodded,

"Okay, thanks, I guess," she said, as she did her best to awkwardly pick up her backpack with her mouth, which I saw held two rows of razor sharp teeth that could easily cut through flesh and bone with a single bite. When she had finally gotten a grasp on it, she shot off towards the forest like a bolt of lightning.

After she entered the forest, I turned around to face the group,

"So… Apparently I have a sister, who is a giant chupacabra, and I have no idea how to deal with this."

"Well we can't let her stay," I heard Shane say, "She's much to dangerous to be around here, anywhere for that matter-"

"No!" I exclaimed, repulsed at what Shane was saying, "How could you say that? She's not a dangerous creature! Only a little girl who needs our help! We can't just leave her out there on her own!"

Sophia nodded,

"Yeah! Marcey's my best friend, and if it wasn't for her I'd be a walker by now!"

I looked at her in surprise,

"Wait, what? When did this happen?" I questioned her.

She opened her mouth; about to reply when all of a sudden Marceline appeared by us as if by magic she was so fast, dressed in… exactly what she had previously been wearing. The only change was that she now had a bright blue bow in her hair.

T-Dog raised an eyebrow,

"Aren't those the same clothes you were wearing?"

She shook her head,

"No, I have three pairs of every different piece of clothing I have, duh!"

"Isn't that a bit much?" he asked her.

She scoffed,

"Um, no?" she told him, blinking her large golden eyes at him.

"Wait a second," I said, "I thought your eyes were blue and then turned gold?"

"Contacts!" she explained.

Shane rolled his eyes rudely,

"Yeah, like that's so obvious."

"Shut it Shane!" I snapped at him, and I admit that I was quite surprised at what I said to him.

He crossed his arms over his chest,

"Excuse me?"

"I _said_ shut it, because if you don't and you keep being rude to Marceline, I will slap you," I told him darkly.

"Wha- AAH!" he yelled in pain as my hand made forceful contact with his face before I even had time to think.

"Sam!" Daryl shouted as he grabbed my hand out of the air where it stood frozen from the shock I was in.

Why had I slapped Shane? He was almost always acting like that to everyone lately, and I had only met Marceline but six or seven minutes ago! What was happening to me?

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Oh my god! Sophia!" Carol shouted as she rushed towards her daughter from where she had previously been standing at the laundry line, "Oh god, are you all right?" she questioned her as they embraced.

"Yeah mom, I'm fine. I made a new friend too," she told her mother, who I don't think even heard it over her cries of joy.

Sadly, I couldn't stay for the lovely reunion as I was currently helping Rick and Shane get Daryl into the farmhouse so that Hershel could take care of his side, which I was terribly worried about.

"You're gonna be alright, okay?" I reassured him, although inside I knew it was more for me than him.

I laughed slightly,

"You really think I'm gonna die of this? No way, I'm most definitely not done livin' yet."

I giggled, and gave him a light kiss on his cheek,

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides, I love you to much for you to die so… simply!" I told him with a little smirk.

He looked at me, confused,

"Simply? What do you mean simply?" he questioned me.

I shrugged,

"I don't know, I guess I've just always expected your death to be a bit more… epic."

"What? An arrow through the side after being bucked off a horse and falling down a cliff _twice _and then being found by a chupacabra brat ain't good enough for you?" he asked.

I shook my head,

"No, I just meant that I imagined your death more along the lines of you fighting off an unimaginably large hoard of walkers in an attempt to save me. And then just when you're about to get eaten alive, a giant squirrel appears and helps you kill all of them. Then once it has helped you, it decides that you would make a nice snack and then eats you. After I'm safe of course," I finished with a grin.

"Sounds pretty epic if you ask me!"

I looked down to see Marceline skipping along by my side with smirk.

Daryl frowned down at her,

"No one asked for your opinion, brat."

I looked at the two who seemed to be in a staring contest and glaring daggers at each other. Daggers that had been recently sharpened, dipped in poison, and had bombs attached to their hilts.

Yep, this was awkward.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Marceline, I need to talk to you," I told the girl when I found her wandering through the Greene's house, probably trying to find Sophia.

"About you being my sister, am I right?" she asked.

I nodded,

"If you could give me some answers, that would be great."

She sighed,

"Alright, but it's a bit of a long story, so it would be good if we could find a nice place where we won't be interrupted, that would probably be good."

"Okay, we can go into the woods if you'd like."

Marceline smiled,

"Perfect."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Marceline and I sat on a large grey boulder positioned by a stream, halfway in the cool flowing water.

"So…" Marceline said after being quiet for a few minutes, all filled with awkward silence.

"Um… I suppose you should explain whom you are exactly, because I would really like some answers on how you can turn into a giant seven foot tall chupacabra," I told her, being a complete failure at trying to be subtle.

Marceline took in a deep breath,

"Alright, well… I have no idea."

I was taken back,

"Wait, what?"

She didn't say anything. Instead, she turned around to grab her backpack, which she had been slightly leaning on. Bringing it onto her lap she unzipped it, and reached her hand in and began digging around. After a few moments she pulled out a large white folder, which she silently handed over to me.

"What is this?" I asked her curiously.

She shrugged,

"I'm not sure. You see, before my mom died, she gave me a picture of you that had directions to the folder on the back. You can see it if you want…" she told me as she began to go through her backpack again until she got out the photo that she was talking about.

It was the same picture of me that the group had seen when we went to the CDC, the last one that was taken of me for my profile before the apocalypse started. The picture was worn and slightly faded with several creases and wrinkles around the edges. I flipped it over to the blank side, where a few short sentences were written in black, loopy writing.

_Marcey,_

_This is your sister; you need to find her at all costs. Behind the Storm Horse painting in the guest room. 38, 50, 1, 17, 24, 6. Give her the folder, don't look inside it._

_I love you with all my heart,_

_Mom_

When I finished, I handed the picture back to Marceline, almost not noticing the small prick of a tear in the corner of my eye.

"Thanks," she said as she placed the picture into her bag, "I guess you should open the folder now."

"I guess I should," I spoke, my voice filled with curiosity about what could be inside.

Holding the package in my left hand, I used my right to rip of about an inch of the top of, revealing an opening that I could easily fit my hand into.

Peering in, I saw a collection of papers, which when I pulled out I saw that they were stapled together at the top. I quickly realized that it was a letter, written in the same handwriting as the note on the back of the picture of me was, showing that it was obviously written by Marceline's mother. And so, I began to read…

_Dear Salvation,_

_ My name is Doctor Anna Monroe, you and Marceline's mother. I am so sorry for giving you up, at the time I was so naïve and honestly thought that nothing bad would happen to you if I handed you over to your father. I was only doing what I thought was right at the time, all I wanted to do was save the world. And after all, I worked there at the time. When I figured out what they had done to you, I promised myself that I would never make the same mistake again, and so I had Marceline. _

_When Nathaniel tried to convince me to give her to him for more experimentation, but I kept telling him no over and over again. And so, a week after she was born, he hired someone to kidnap her. I was horrified when I found out about this, and after an entire year of searching I found out where he was keeping you two. I snuck in and found out where they had Marceline hooked up to some sort of machine, which I hacked into so that it would say that Marceline had died over the night, and rescued her. I looked for you too, but I couldn't find you anywhere. I went back and tried to find you again, but I couldn't find the entrance to the base anywhere. I suppose that they had suspected something was going on and moved the doors around. I am so terribly sorry for that, my girl. _

_I took Marceline back home, and quickly figured out that she was a Salvation, and a successful one at that. And I also figured out that she could turn into a kind of dog/lizard creature, particularly whenever she had strong emotions, such as sadness, anger, and excitement. _

_I wasn't to surprised when I found out about this, as to create salvations we had to graph small sections of komodo dragon, tortoise, wolf, and greyhound DNA into human DNA, the younger they were the more likely they were to survive. So if you wanted to know, that's what you're made of. _

_I know that you probably hate me for leaving you with those monsters that call themselves scientists, but I need your help. You __must__ take care of Marceline. She needs to be loved, to be reassured that it is going to be okay, to be protected and safe. She may act like she's completely fine all the time, but she's not. You have to help her, please. _

_And always remember that no matter what, I have and always will love you. Even if you hate me you are my daughter, and I care about you. _

_Love,_

_Mom_

_P.S. You may be having the urge to protect Marceline, which would come from your more animal instincts. _

_P.P.S. Try not to be to disturbed by Marceline's pie obsession._

I finished the letter, silently placing it back into the envelope. And then I turned, and hugged my little sister,

"Marceline," I whispered through my tears, "I barely know you at all, but I swear to god I will protect you with my life, and one way or another you will be safe. No matter what this disgusting, cruel world throws at you, I'll be there to stop it with all I have. And that's a promise."

**DONE! And just incase you guys didn't know, I reposted this chapter because it had a bunch of crazy mistakes in it. Pretty much I was proofreading it, but then my mom turned on The Avengers so I was all like,**

"**La la la Sam la la la AVENGERS! La la la Marceline la la la AVENGERS! La la la AVENGERS AVENGERS ANVENGERS!" **

**And now, because I am such an amazingly awesome friend, I am letting Violet say random stuff. **

**Violet: HIIIIIIIII! Ok, so I LOVE Doctor Who and its SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the Walking Dead **_**(Not true Violet!)**_**. YES IT MOTHER FUCKING IS LUNA! BTW, I thought of the idea of Sam hitting Shane, so you can thank me for that. And I inspired Luna to get Daryl and Sam together faster than she was going to **_**(I was getting there!)**_**. Now, I have some things to get out so don't read the next few sentences. HOLY SHIT I HATE JOHN HURT FOR MOTHER FUCKIN' BEING THE NEXT DOCTOR, DAVID TENNANT AND MATT SMITH ARE SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER, I SOOOOOO FUCKIN' MAD THAT AMY DIED SHE IS THE COOLEST FUCKING GINGER THAT I KNOW ( and I am a ginger) I KINDA WANT TO RIP SOME PEOPLE'S HEARTS OUT RIGHT NOW AND SHOVE THEM TO HELL! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! AND YES ZEBRAS TOTALLY GROWL! BTW, I HATE CAMERON AND CONRAD ( two boys at our school). I ALSO LIKE SHOW WHERE PEOPLE SOLVE VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VIOLENT MURDERS, LIKE CASTLE AND BONES. I KNOW DUB DOCTOR WHO THE AWESOMEST TV SHOW THE WOR—I MEAN UNIVERSE HAS EVER FUCKING MADE! BTW I THINK DONNA NOBLE IS NOT THE NUMBER ONE COMPANION, SHE IS JUST BITCHY. EVERYONE ELSE IS BETTER THAN HER, EVEN THOUGH I LOVE CATHERINE TATE, I HATE DONNA NOBLE! Ok, until next time fellow readers. And YES there WILL BE A NEXT TIME. BYEEEEEEEE!**

**If you think she's crazy, you should meet me! **_**If anyone has decided to stalk me I will find you, stuff you into a sleeping bag filled with cockroaches and deer flies, leave you in there for a few days, and then drown you in a lake of spoiled syrup and toxic waste. **_

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	25. Awkward Dinner of Awkwardness

**Yay! Next chapter!**

Dinner was… interesting. And by interesting I mean awkward. Really, really awkward.

I was sitting on Marceline's right with Rick to my left. The only people who weren't sitting at the main table were Beth, Jimmy, Maggie, and Glenn who were at an estranged version of one of those 'Kid's Corners/Table' things.

Everyone was silent and giving each other these really weird looks, like they each some big secret that they most definitely didn't want anyone else to know.

Sadly, this included me as well. I didn't really want anyone to know that Marceline was my sister who could turn into what someone would call a 'chupacabra', it would just add to everyone's stress and then the Greenes would probably either kick us out, or try to kill Marceline. It was pretty much a lose-lose situation.

I had no idea why we were all acting like this. Shouldn't we be celebrating that Sophia had come back, along with a new friend, even though Daryl had gotten an arrow in his side and could have possibly died of infection?

"Does anyone know how to play guitar?"

I emerged from my thoughts to see Glenn looking at us all with a little smile on his face, incredibly making this incredibly awkward dinner even more incredibly awkward so that it was like the room would explode from so much incredibly awkward awkwardness. Awkward…

"Dale found a cool one," Glenn continued, "Somebody's got to know how to play!"

"Otis did," Hershel's wife, Patricia said sadly.

Hershel nodded,

"Yes, and he was very good," he told her, with the same longing voice that she had.

We went back to eating our dinner, the only sound was the clinking of our silverware on our plates and bowls, and the rustling of paper. Wait a second, paper?

I lifted my head from the strawberry pie I had been eating, glancing over at the 'Kids' table. Using my enhanced eyesight, I zeroed in on Maggie, who was handing a small piece of paper and a pen to Glenn.

I smirked, and reached down into my front pocket, carefully pulling out a blank sheet of paper (I always tried to have one with me incase I spontaneously decided to sketch something, which I sadly hadn't been doing lately), and a short pencil that had to be only about three inches long.

After quickly scribbling my note onto the paper, I stood up and pushed in my chair,

"I'm going to take some dinner to Daryl," I told them as I grabbed a chocolate pie from the table, along with a knife and fork.

As I passed Glenn, I stealthily threw the note onto his lap, and walked out the door.

**Glenn POV**

I was confused about why Sam would give me a note, but I was curious about what she wrote so I opened it up and read it. It was short and simple, but I still blushed at what she said, and I really hoped Maggie didn't notice.

I stuffed the note into my pocket, and tried to forget about what she had written.

_Someone's got a girlfriend! ;D_

**Samantha POV**

I entered Daryl's room where I found him lying on the bed with a white bandage around his side.

"Hey," I said as I sat down on the bed next to him, "I brought you some dinner."

"It's pie, isn't it?" he asked with a smirk, even though it was more of a statement than an answer.

I rolled my eyes,

"No, I've given up on pie and I now totally hate it and I'm now obsessed with pasta," I told him sarcastically.

He chuckled softly, before sitting up slightly, taking the pie, knife, and fork from me and placing a large piece of the pastry in his mouth.

"So it turns out Marceline really is my sister," I said to him suddenly, not even really trying to ease into it.

Daryl nodded,

"I thought so. She looks a lot like you, the only difference is that her skin actually has some color in it, and her hair is probably just a few shades darker than yours. She even acts like you," he said to me.

"Okay, first of all, don't make fun of my paleness; I was trapped in a highly-secured government base for the first twenty-six years of my life and never went outside so OF COURSE I'm going to be pale. Secondly, what do you mean Marcey acts just like me?" I questioned him.

He raised an eyebrow,

"You mean you haven't noticed yet?"

I shook my head,

"No…"

"Well, she's sarcastic, annoying, weird. I guess she pretty much acts what I would imagine a younger version of you would be like," he explained to me.

I shrugged,

"I guess so."

"What's with the whole chupacabra thing?" Daryl questioned me as he put another piece of pie in his mouth.

I sighed,

"Apparently, the psychos at Area 52 graphed komodo dragon, wolf, tortoise, and greyhound DNA into us. So yeah, I am probably the weirdest crossbreed you will ever come across."

Daryl smirked,

"Yeah, a hot one."

I blushed slightly at this. Even though Daryl could act like he didn't care about anything but killing the walkers, he was actually a really great guy. The best thing about it? He was all mine.

I giggled as I bent down and kissed him softly on the lips before pulling back so that I could sit on the edge of the bed where I took of my boots. I didn't have to worry about my vest as I had already put it in my tent before heading to dinner along with the folder Marceline had given me.

"What are you doing?" I heard Daryl ask me as a put the socks I had been wearing into my shoes so that they wouldn't get lost.

I turned around to face him with a little smirk on my face,

"I'm tired to, you know. I mean, sure you got shot in the side with an arrow and fell down a cliff- twice- then had to walk all the way back to camp, but I baked over fifty pies and also figured out that I have a sister, _and_ that I had a bunch of animal DNA in me. So I'm staying sleeping here tonight. Problem?" I asked him, almost daring him to disagree with me.

"I don't have a problem, at all. But what if Hershel or one of the other Greene's see you in here?" Daryl asked.

I shrugged,

"I don't know, tell me not to do it again? Why should they care?"

"I just don't want you to get in trouble, that's all," Daryl told me.

I laughed,

"Daryl, it's the zombie apocalypse and you're worried about me getting in trouble for sleeping in the same bed as my boyfriend for a night? You aren't worrying about a herd attacking the farm and killing all of us or anything like that?" I asked him.

"Never mind," he said with a sigh.

"Good."

And with that I lifted up the covers and crawled into the bed, scooting over to Daryl who wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I rested my head on his chest, and fell into what must have been the most peaceful sleep I had had in my life.

**OMFG I AM SO SORRY! I would have updated sooner but I went to my cousin's who aren't actually my cousins house for 4 days and I forgot my computer so I couldn't write and I've been really really busy and I'm SORRY! **

**I do have some good news though! I'm working with my friend ****DemonicAngel38**** to write a Whovengers fanfiction and we already have the first chapter up so if you wanna see more of my writing you can check that out. **

**Also I would like to thank ****TheLazyPolarBear**** (aka my cousin who's not my cousin) for helping me make the new cover. Thank you!**

**And ****mks 12 98**** your question shall be answered in the following chapter(s)**

**Once again I AM SORRY! D: D: D: D: D: D: D: **


	26. You Have Issues

**Yay! Next chapter!**

I woke up to feel my head on something warm, and hard. I guess I was still drowsy from only just awakening, because all I did was let out a small moan before shifting slightly before nuzzling into even more.

"You enjoying yourself there?"

My eyes shot open and I bolted up so quickly I almost got whiplash. I looked around wildly, before looking down next to me to see Daryl laying next to me quite calmly with his hands behind his head and a smirk on his face.

"Daryl! Don't scare me like that!" I scolded him, lightly slapping his arm.

The response I got to this was Daryl rolling his eyes before grabbing my arm and pulling me back down on the bed next to him with a soft thump.

I stuck my tongue out at him in a childish manner before snuggling back down by him with my head on his warm chest and his arm around my waist.

We stayed like this for a few more minutes, just enjoying each other's presence, before one yellow-eyed freckle-faced chupacabra girl had to interrupt us.

"Sammy!" Marcey shouted as she burst through the door, shattering the silence that I had previously been in.

I sat up and looked at my little sister, slightly annoyed that she hadn't knocked first,

"Yeah?"

She opened her mouth, about to speak but quickly shut it and observed the situation. Me sitting in bed with Daryl after not coming downstairs again after I went to give him dinner and therefore disappearing for the rest of the night. I _really _hope she wasn't getting any bad ideas.

But if she did, she didn't say anything because she just said to me was,

"Rick told me to tell you that breakfast is in twenty minutes and he needs to talk to you and also you need to help Shane in the gun training class thingy okay?" she told me quickly, not even stopping to take a breath once.

I nodded,

"Alright, I'll be there. Just give me a sec, yeah?" I told her.

"Yep, I'll be with Sophia and Carl back at camp if you're wondering where I am or anything," she said as she backed towards the door, not even waiting for me to respond before she exited the room.

I sighed and lay back down,

"I guess I should get up now…" I spoke to Daryl with a pout on my face. I began to sit up again, but found that Daryl had tightened his grip around me, not allowing me to move.

"Daryl!" I laughed.

"Five more minutes?" he asked me.

I looked up at him, about to say no, but how could I? In front of me was _Daryl Dixon_, my amazing boyfriend who I loved _so _much. Not to mention he looked really really hot right now.

I smirked,

"Fine, five more minutes."

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Half an hour later I had had a breakfast of three pies and then dressed myself in black skinny jeans, a green tank top, my hiking boots, my black gloves, and my leather vest which I had decided to zip up today. For weapons I had on my double-gun holsters with a gun in each (duh, what did you think I was going to put in them? Bananas?). And, of course, trotting by my side was Shady, who of course, had a squirrel in his mouth, which he had seemingly gotten out of nowhere.

I approached Rick who was over by where we had parked the cars.

"Good morning, Sam," he said as soon as he saw me.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked him as I leaned against one of the cars.

"Marceline," he replied.

I nodded, expecting this conversation to be based around her. After all, it wasn't exactly normal for a yellow-eyed girl to show up all of a sudden and turn into a seven-foot-tall chupacabra.

"So, what do you want to know?" I asked our leader, even though I already knew what his reply would be. It was pretty obvious.

"Everything you've figured out about her so far."

"Okay," I took a deep breath, knowing that this might take a while, "So Marceline really is my sister, and our mom, Anna Monroe who used to work with my dad, rescued her from Area 52 after a year of searching for it. The reason why she can turn into the chupacabra thing is because we have greyhound, komodo dragon, tortoise, and wolf DNA in us. And because of that I more than most likely will have the urge to protect Marceline which is the most likely reason for why I slapped Shane. Questions?" I asked Rick.

He shook his head,

"Surprisingly, no. But if you find out anything else I want you to come and tell me straight away. I've already talked to Shane and T-Dog about keeping this as quiet as possible for the moment, and I'm sure you will as well."

I nodded,

"Of course."

"Good. Now I'll also have to have a chat with Marceline about thi-" he paused in mid sentence, and face-palmed.

"What?" I asked, confusion in my voice.

Rick sighed,

"Glenn, how much of our conversation have you heard?"

Turning around, I saw that there was in fact a very nervous and embarrassed Glenn in front of us, holding a basket of peaches.

"Um, the part where Sam told you all that stuff about she and Marceline being able to turn into chupacabras until now. Sorry about that."

I looked Glenn in the eye, and he gulped,

"Glenn, you understand that you can _not _tell _anyone _about this, alright? You have to keep it a secret!" I told him in a serious tone.

He began to nod rapidly so fast I was starting to worry that he might get whiplash,

"Yes, yes I wont tell anyone I swear. I can keep a secret, yeah totally, you can trust me, yep I will keep that secret, yea-"

"Glenn," I said, cutting him off, "You have issues, you know that, right?"

The young man sighed,

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, I'll just be going now. Away from here, with yet another secret to kee-"

"Wait, what do you mean another secre-"

"Gotta go bye!" Glenn shouted, cutting me off as he ran away.

Well that was weird.

**Okay people, important announcement. I will be on an island with no technology until the 10****th**** so their will be no updates during now and then, but I will still be working on it on paper. Also this chapter was going to be longer but I had to stop short because we are leaving in the next 5 minutes. Later!**


	27. Marceline's Story

**Yay! Next chapter! Before we start I would like to answer some questions/comments…**

**mks 12 98****: How right you are**

**SparklyCupcakeKitten****: Trust me, I try my best to update as fast as I can, but it's very hard because I have A LOT of other stuff to do, especially during the summer. I'm very very sorry. :(**

**TheLazyPolarBear****: Seriously? I apologized for trying to feed you a prune covered in tartar sauce and onion salt like, ten times now! Besides, it was your idea and you were bored :/**

**NOW ON WITH THE STORY!**

"Hey Phia!" I called to Sophia, using the nickname I had given her.

My friend was sitting with a big black German Sheppard dog that appeared to be sleeping on a small patch of yellowing grass by where she and Carol's tent stood.

"Hi Marcey! What've you been doing?" she asked me as I plopped down on the grass next to her.

I shrugged my shoulders,

"Nothing much, I just had to deliver a message to Sammy from Rick about helping Shane with the gun class today or something like that."

"Alright," she said as she pet the dog, "This is Shady by the way, I don't think you've met him yet."

I nodded,

"You're right, I haven't. He's really cute though! Who does he belong to?" I asked as I scooted closer to the animal so that I could run my fingers through his fur. Sophia joined me as she responded to my question by saying,

"He's Sammy's."

"Cool! Do you know where she got him?"

Sophia nodded,

"Sammy said that she found him a few weeks before she met us, trapped in a car surrounded by walkers that wanted to eat him. She killed the walkers and got him out of the car, but then about three weeks later he was bit. Luckily Sammy was able to turn him into a Salvation and save him!" she told me with a happy smile.

My eyes widened to the size of saucers,

"Wait a second, hold up, are you telling me that that dog right there, is like me?" a questioned her as I stared with wide-eyes at Shady.

Sophia nodded,

"That's right! Just look at his eyes!" she softly nudged the dog, awakening him to reveal the eyes of a Salvation, "You see? The only difference between you, Sammy's, and his are that his are more yellow while you and Sammy's are more golden. And even then I think yours are just a little bit darker than your sister's so there a teensy bit bronze, but you can barely tell the difference." Sophia explained to me.

I nodded, trying my best to keep my surprise under control and just accept the situation. I reached out my hand to pet Shady once more, but before I could touch his thick fur he jumped to his feet and quickly ran to tackle a boy who looked to be me and Sophia's age.

The boy laughed as he sat up and wrapped his hands around the dog's neck in a kind of hug,

"Hey there boy, you miss me?" he asked as the Salvation began to lick his face in joy.

**Shady POV**

CarlCarlCarl Yaaaaaay! Lick lick lick! Carl okay! Happy! Sniff sniff sniff. OH MER GAWD DA SKWIRLZ R BACK I MUSHT EET DEM AWLL!

**Marceline POV**

Shady quickly ran off all of a sudden with a hungry look in his eye, leaving me alone with the boy and Sophia.

"Carl!" my friend suddenly shouted as a smile lit up her face.

"Sophia!" he exclaimed in happiness as the two ran up to embrace each other in a friendly hug, "It's great to see you again!"

Sophia nodded enthusiastically,

"Yeah, you too! Hey, have you met Marceline yet?" she asked, bringing the attention to me.

It was no secret that Carl was surprised at my appearance. With a red bow in my hair, rainbow striped knee socks, denim shorts, a black t-shirt with the TARDIS on it, black converse and my favorite purple and black striped jacket, I wasn't exactly dressed like your average zombie apocalypse survivor. Quite far from it in fact.

"Uh, hi, I'm Carl Grimes," the boy said, holding out his hand which I took in mine so that I could shake it.

"Marceline Monroe. But you can call me Marcey or Marce if you want," I told him, and to my surprise I let out a small giggle as well as a blush. A freaking _blush_! And lucky me, Sophia noticed.

Positioning herself so that she was standing behind Carl so that he could no longer see her, she held her hands up together in the shape of a heart while making kissy faces. To my horror, this made me blush even more.

"So, uh, what do you guys do for fun around here?" I quickly asked, trying to distract Sophia from her antics.

Carl shrugged,

"There's not much. We could play hide and seek-"

"That didn't end to well last time, remember?" Sophia spoke, cutting him off as she stepped forward to stand next to him.

I then vaguely remembered Sophia telling me about her and her friends playing hide and seek in a forest, only to find a walker eating a deer. They ran away before it noticed them and tried to chase them, which earned them the rule of, 'Don't go in the forest or bad mojo will happen.'

Carl sighed and nodded,

"Yeah, lets not play that again. Why don't we play one of the board games in the RV?"

"We've played all of them at least ten times each if not _way _more," was Sophia's response.

"Tag?"

"You're still recovering from being shot."

"What about exploring?"

"We have to either be in camp or in the house at all times."

"We could play with Shady!"

"He's probably off in the forest chasing squirrels. Again. Do you have any ideas Marcey?" the girl questioned me.

I shook my head sadly,

"Nope."

"Ugh!" Sophia groaned as she fell to the ground, "There's absolutely nothing to do around here!"

"Well…I do have one more," Carl said unsurely.

Sophia and I both perked up at this,

"What is it?" we both questioned him at the same time, not even bothering to try to jinx each other like we usually did.

"I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it a secret, okay?"

I raised an eyebrow, and if this were a normal day I would probably question him about why it had to be a secret, but I was so bored I honestly didn't care right now.

"We promise we'll keep it a secret," I told Carl, speaking for both Sophia and I.

Carl quickly looked around, checking to see if anyone was paying attention to us before lifting up the rim of his shirt to reveal a gun that had been stuffed in his pants with the hilt sticking up out of it.

"Carl!" Sophia exclaimed as her eyes widening at the sight of the weapon, only to have my hand slap over her mouth to silence her.

"Don't yell, alright?" I whispered to her.

She nodded vigorously and I let my hand drop to my side, returning her communication skills to her.

"Carl, what are you doing? You're going to get in trouble!" she scolded him with worry in her voice.

"I won't be in trouble as long as you don't tell anyone! All I want to do is help protect the group and that's it! I'm not going to go run through the forest shooting walkers or anything like that! _Please _don't tell my parents!" he pleaded to her.

Sophia bit her lip, deciding whether or not she should say anything, filling the air with fear and tension.

"I wont tell anyone," she finally told Carl who let out a breath that he had been holding, "But I don't want anything to do with this so if anyone finds out about your gun leave me out of it, okay?" she told him.

He nodded,

"Alright."

And with that, Sophia walked away in the direction of the RV, and instead of following her I stayed with Carl.

"You wont tell, right?" he asked me.

I shook my head,

"Nope."

Carl gave me a small smile,

"Thanks."

"Why didn't you have a gun before? I would think everyone would have one. It seems like a necessary item to have in the apocalypse," I asked him.

He sighed and rolled his eyes,

"It's my stupid mom, Lori. She's the one with the wavy brown hair in case you haven't met her yet. She doesn't let me do anything! Practically all she ever says to me is 'Stay in the house Carl!' and she doesn't even check to see if I'm there!

The day Sophia got lost on the highway, I decided to go look around and find an arsenal filled with guns hatchets and machetes and knives. I brought it back to show her and Shane, and she told me that it was extremely dangerous for me to have it and that I shouldn't have run off or something like that when all I wanted to do was give it to the group so that we could use it if walkers attacked us again!

I'm only allowed to have a knife and that's only if an adult is watching me, but in some ways that's even more dangerous than a gun because you can shoot walkers from afar with it and not have to go anywhere near them while with a knife you have to get right up in there faces, so there's a much greater chance of getting bit. So yeah, that's my mom for you. Best parent ever," Carl said sarcastically.

"Man!" I said, surprised at his mother's actions "Talk about a control freak!"

Carl sighed,

"Yeah, sorry to dump all my problems on you."

"It's fine," I told him.

"So anyways… is there anything you want to know about the group or anything like that?" he asked me.

I thought for a moment,

"I have no idea. Just tell me what you think I should know I guess."

"Okay," Carl said with a nod, "Pretty much everyone in the camp is our group, and the people in the house are the Greene's who own this farm. My dad is kind of like the unofficial leader, and the next in charge is my dad's best friend Shane who's basically my uncle since he and my dad are so close, and after that is either Daryl or Sam. Daryl is kind of a loner and the only one who really ever hangs out with him is Sam who's his girlfriend. She's pretty much everybody's cool older sister, and then there's also Dale who's like every ones grandpa or something like that. Glenn is really cool too, and so is T-Dog. Andrea can be pretty stubborn sometimes but other than that she's good. You probably already met Carol, and she's really really nice. And finally there's my mom, the control freak.

My dad is currently trying to convince Hershel to let us stay here because so far it's probably the safest place we've been in besides that one night at the CDC. The only reason why we didn't stay there was because of this guy named Jenner blew it up. And that's pretty much our whole story," Carl explained to me, "What about you?"

I was a bit unsure of answering Carl's question, I hadn't really talked about my past with anyone but Sophia, but I decided that I would tell Carl anyways,

"Well before all this happened I lived in a small town in California with my mom and my step dad. My mom, Hilary, was a surgeon at the local hospital and my dad, George, was a cop. My mom broke up with my biological father before I was born and when I was about two she married again.

When I was three I started doing gymnastics, and it turns out I'm some sort of child prodigy. Because of that, next year I was going to go to this private school that had a really really good athletic program which included gymnastics. We moved to Florida, which was where the school was. But… then the apocalypse started.

We decided to get as far away from the city as possible and head for the CDC, hopped in our car and drove off. When are car started to run out of gas, we stopped at what appeared to be an empty gas station. While my mom filled up the car my dad went in to the station to see if there was any food in there that hadn't been taken.

All of a sudden, my mom and I heard a scream from the station. My mom told me to stay in the car while she went and got my dad.

After a few minutes, I started to get worried so I went into the station. On the floor behind the counter, I found mom, dad, and a dead walker in a pool of blood. My parents were barely alive and covered in bites.

They both said that they loved me, and that I had to get the gun a-and… I killed them," I didn't realize I was crying until I finished my story and had enough time to feel the warm, salty tears ran down my face and dripped down my nose. I quickly wiped them away, embarrassed to be crying in front of someone I had only just met.

"Anyways," I started again, doing my best to hide the cracks in my voice, "I buried my parents in a nearby field, and then drove the car as far as I could, nonstop, until it finally broke down. From there, I walked. I found the CDC surrounded by the dead, and decided to skip the CDC and just wander around until I found a safe place.

I didn't run into any herds, but one day I found that a walker had pinned a girl to the ground and it would have bitten her if I hadn't killed it.

You've probably already figured out that the girl was Sophia, and we were instantly best friends. She told me about the group here, and we decided that the next day we would set out and try to find it.

About ten minutes or so into our trip, we found Daryl and took him back to the cabin/house place that we had been staying in.

He woke up quite soon, and I pulled out an arrow that he had in his side and he took Sophia and I back here. And then, we had the most awkward dinner that I have ever been in."

"Why was it so bad?" Carl asked me.

I began to giggle as I remembered it,

"Well pretty much no one was talking and just giving each other these really weird looks, and then all of a sudden this one guy is all like, 'Does anyone know how to play guitar?' and we were all like, 'What the fudge is wrong with you?' and it was so weird!"

Carl laughed,

"That sounds terrible!"

"If you think that was bad, just wait and hear what his response was…" as I chatted with Carl, I decided that he was pretty cool, and that we were going to become great friends. He was a bit cute, too.

**Well, this is quite obviously the start of the Carl/OC part of my story, so I hope those of you who have been waiting for that to start are happy :) **

**Please review :3**


	28. Special Grape Juice

**So before we start, I would like to tell you guys that I'm going to be making a new cover, and I need a picture of a real-life person that looks like Sam, and and actress or singer may be good so I can have footage of that person in case I want TheLazyPolarBear to make me some kind of book trailer. So if you find one, it would be great if you could send me the link in the reviews, don't PM me cuz it doesn't work, so sorry about that.**

**NOW ON WITH THE STORY!**

After talking to Rick, I decided to give myself the errand of apologizing to Shane for slapping him. I quickly found the man leaning against the front of the RV eating a peach that I assumed he had gotten from Glenn.

"Hey, Shane?" I asked uncertainly as I stood in front of him.

He looked up at me with a glare on his face,

"Can I help you, Sam?" he questioned, not even trying to conceal the anger in his voice.

I sighed, and looked at him with guilt in my eyes,

"I just wanted to apologize for hitting you yesterday. Apparently I had a bunch of animal DNA graphed into me, and so I'll have the instinct to protect Marceline, and at the time you were posing a threat to her, so I just reacted and slapped you. But I didn't mean to I swear! And once again I'm really _really _sorry. And also, I just didn't think it would be good to be fighting during gun class, or risking having another really awkward dinner," I told him, hoping that he would forgive me.

He looked at me for a while, contemplating what to say before he sighed, took another bite of his peach and said to me,

"Fine, I forgive you. But you owe me a favor, alright?"

I smiled,

"Of course."

We shook hands, sealing the deal.

I suddenly heard the sound of small footsteps approaching us, and turned around to see Carl and Marceline approaching us.

"Dude, nice lid man," Shane said with a smile when he saw Carl's over-sized sheriff's hat that I supposed he had gotten from Rick.

"Hey kiddos, what's going on?" I asked the two children, "You getting along well?"

"Yeah, but, can we ask you something?" Carl questioned us.

I nodded,

"Of course you can."

"We want to learn to shoot too," Marceline said seriously.

"Will you teach us?" Carl asked.

Shane chuckled,

"Well man, that's up to your parents."

"Can you talk to them? They'll listen to you," Carl said to Shane.

He let out a small sigh,

"We'll see, okay?"

"What about me, can I shoot?" Marceline asked me.

I thought a bit, I most definitely wanted all of the kids to learn to shoot, but I didn't want to be unfair and start a fight between them, and Rick and Lori hadn't exactly said no to Carl yet, so I replied to Marcey by saying,

"Like Shane said, we'll see."

Marceline and Carl both gave us a small nod each and began to walk away to go play if it had not been for the small clicking noise both Shane and I suddenly heard.

"Hey," Shane said to Carl, "Let me see what you've got there."

Both Carl and Marceline looked at us in fear, and if I listened very closely I could hear their scared, rapid heartbeats. Carl gave a small, fearful nod before he slowly lifted up his shirt to reveal a gun. Lori was gonna be pissed.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Only a few minutes later, Rick, Shane, Dale, and I were all standing in a circle at the middle of the camp with, big surprise, a very pissed off Lori.

"How the hell did this happen?" Lori asked with anger in her voice, unloading Carl's gun and stuffing it in her back pocket as she walked away from the picnic table her son and my sister sat at.

"Well it's my fault," Dale said guiltily, "I let him in the RV. He said he wanted a walkie, that you sent him for one," he told Rick.

"So on top of everything else, he lied?" Lori said angrily, "What're they thinking?" she whispered to her husband.

"They want to learn how to shoot," Shane told them, "They asked Sam and I to teach them. Now, it's none of my business, but I'm happy to do it, it's your call and I'm sure Sam wouldn't mind either."

Lori shook her head,

"I'm not comfortable with it-"

"Are you kidding me?" I scoffed, cutting her off, "You're not comfortable with them having a gun? I'm not comfortable with them _not _having one!"

"Don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here, Samantha," Wow there she used my full name! Yes, she's most definitely pissed… at me, "Rick?" she asked, looking for him to side with her.

He sighed,

"I know I have my concerns too, but-"

"There's no but!" Lori snapped at him, "He was just shot! He's just back on his feet and now he wants a gun?"

"Better than him being afraid of them," Rick argued, "There are guns in camp for a reason, he, Marceline, and Sophia should learn to handle them safely-"

"I don't want the kids walking around with guns!"

"How can you defend that?" Rick questioned her, "You can't let them go around without protection."

"They're as safe as they'll ever be right here."

"There is no safe place," I told Lori, "Not like the one you want anymore. The least dangerous place for the kids, or _anyone_ for that matter, in this godforsaken world is with a gun. You have to understand that-"

"No, it feels wrong!" the Grimes woman told me, "I mean, I didn't feel good about Carl following Rick and Shane out into the woods, and I wish I'd said something, I should've gone with my gut!"

"They're growing up," Rick said, "Thank god, and we've got to start treating them more like adults."

"Then they need to act like them. They're not mature enough to handle guns!"

"We wont play with them Mom!" Carl suddenly broke in as he stood up and walked over to the circle with Marceline right behind him, "They aren't toys. We're sorry that we disappointed you, but we want to defend our camp. We can't do that without a gun," Carl told us seriously, and Marceline nodded in agreement.

"Shane's the best instructor I know," Rick told his wife, "I've seen him teach kid's younger than Carl, Sophia, and Marceline, and you've seen Sam shoot. She never misses, and if she did I didn't have time to notice before there was a bullet shot straight through her target," I smiled happily at Rick's praise for me.

Finally, after several seconds of her thinking, Lori walked over to Carl and Marceline, taking her son's cheeks in her hands,

"You will take this seriously, and you will behave responsibly, and if I hear from anyone in this camp that you are not living up to our expectations-"

"They won't let you down," Rick interrupted.

Marceline nodded,

"Yeah."

And with that, Lori walked away, all the while I was screaming in my mind,

"_Oh yeah! The kiddo's are gonna learn to shoot! Take that Lori! And once they can handle a gun, I can teach them to throw knives just like a promised Carl! Go cool older sister powers yay!" _

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

Thirty minutes later, I was on the edge of the Greene property hearing the only slightly muffled sound of gunfire due to stuffing my ears with toilet paper to block out the sound. I walked down the row of gunners who were shooting at bottles and paint cans standing on the top of the Green's property fence with Rick and Shane by my side.

Seeing Jimmy holding his gun sideways like an idiot, I walked over to where he was standing. I guess T-Dog noticed his fault too, because he said,

"Hey, come on man! Don't give me that gangster shit!"

Walking over to them, I took his shooting hand in mine, and positioned it so that he was now holding it upright and aligned perfectly with the wine bottle he was trying to hit.

He pulled the trigger, and the sharp sound of shattering glass and a gunshot filled my ears much to my dismay. Most of the time super-human hearing was great when you were hunting or whatever, but gunfire was loud, and I mean really really loud! I can't believe Shane almost forgot to bring something to keep the sound out! You could go temporarily deaf from this much noise!

"Thanks! Uh..."

"Samantha James. Full name when you're mad at me, Sammy for the kids, and then Sam for everything else," I told the farm boy.

He nodded,

"Yeah, thanks. When'd you start shooting?"

I tapped my chin in thought,

"I was around three, I think."

"Wow! Nineteen years of this? That's a lot!"

"Yeah, I know right-" wait a second… three plus nineteen is twenty-two. This guy thinks I'm twenty-two! Awesomeness! "By the way, I'm actually twenty-six, almost twenty-seven."

He cocked his head to the side slightly,

"Really? That's cool."

I nodded,

"Yeah, anyways, I'm gonna go check out how the kids are doing with this. Bye!" I said as I waved goodbye. I think I made a new friend!

Walking over to Carl, Marceline, and Sophia, I saw that they were all shooting pretty well.

"How's it going?" I asked as I kneeled down between Marceline and Sophia.

"It's really fun!" Marcey said excitedly.

Sophia nodded in agreement,

"Yeah, I wasn't really that sure at first, but I'm getting the hang of it. But guns are a bit hard to use sometimes."

"Can I see you're gun?" I asked the girl who nodded and handed it to me.

I held the weapon in my hand, lifting it up and down to feel its weight. Finally, I took out one of my guns from my holster and handed it to Sophia.

"Why don't you try this one? It's s little lighter and should be easier for you to use," I told Sophia as she looked it over.

She clicked the safety off, took careful aim, and fired at the can she was shooting at. It hit near the top and flew off the fence post like lightning.

"Awesome!" Carl said happily.

"Great shot kiddo!" I told Sophia as I ruffled her hair.

"Thanks Sammy!"

"What about you Carl?" I heard a man's voice say, whom I quickly recognized as Rick.

Then, just like Sophia, Carl aimed, fired, and his target was no more.

"Nailed it!" Rick said proudly to his son.

I looked to Marceline, who smiled at me, and then shot her gun, and I was proud to say that her paint can was no more.

"You guys are naturals!" I told the kids happily, "Now, who wants to learn to throw knives?"

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Marceline POV**

"Okay, I'm done!" Sammy shouted as she carefully slid a black colored pencil back into its case.

I stood up from where I had been sitting with Carl and Sophia around the campfire while my sister sketched us. I had heard my two new friends talking about it and had asked to see some of the drawings, but then they said that it would be cool if she sketched us first and then I saw the drawings. Then they said something about, 'Seeing what animal I am', which left me slightly confused.

As to not get board while we waited for the drawing to be done, we had gone into the RV to get a box of dominos, and actually play the game that they were originally made for instead of just setting them up in a line then watching them fall.

"Can I see your drawings now?" I asked Sammy as I walked over to her. She nodded, and handed me her large drawing pad while Carl and Sophia crowded around so that they could see as well.

My eyes widened as I saw the sketch,

"Wow," was all I managed to have come out of my mouth as I gaped at the VERY realistic picture I held in my hand.

The drawing was of three young cats sitting in a circle with the dominos game in front of them. I quite quickly realized that the dark orange tiger cub by the same sheriffs cat that Carl had been wearing was, obviously, Carl. Sophia was the small strawberry-blond kitten with light brown strips laying over the doll that my friend currently had clasped in her hand, which left me as the little (but not as little as Sophia's cat) black jaguar with the red bow around it's neck must have been me.

"Do you want to keep it?" Sammy asked, and soon got my response, which was a faint nod.

Suddenly, a thought popped into my head,

"_I should her some things to thank her!" _and then out of my mouth came,

"Can I put purple streaks in my hair?"

She seemed a bit surprised at my sudden change of topic, but she quickly got over it, and said,

"You can put streaks in it if you want, but make sure you get some black hair dye too when you want your hair to go back to it's natural color. Okay?"

"Yep!" I said happily, and then I skipped away to find Glenn.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

"Excuse me, are you Glenn?" I asked as cutely as possible as I looked up at the young Korean man.

He nodded as he tightened the saddle on his horse,

"Yeah, and your Marceline Monroe, the, uh new girl, right?" he said a bit nervously.

I nodded,

"Yeah, anyways, you're making a run into town, right?" I asked.

"That's right," a woman about Glenn's age with short brown hair said as she walked into the barn.

"Maggie!" Glenn exclaimed with surprise, "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged,

"Nothing much, I'm just gonna come with you on your run."

"Awesome!" I said, clapping my hands together in glee, "Do you mind getting some stuff for me?" I asked.

Maggie shook her head,

"Of course not sweetie, what do you want?"

I handed her my list,

"It's all on here, if you can't find it don't get it, I don't want you guys to get hurt, okay?"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine!" Glenn reassured me.

"Thank you!" I quickly skipped over and hugged them both, brining them together and I most definitely did not miss the blush that appeared on Glenn's face when my hugging made his body smoosh against Maggie's.

"Wait! I need to add one more thing!" I suddenly said, breaking away from them.

I snatched the paper from Maggie's hand and dug the pen I had been using out of my back pocket, and then quickly scribbled on my list before handing it to Glenn, trying to hide my devilish smile as I skipped away.

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Glenn POV**

"So, what did the girl want?" Maggie asked me as our horses walked along the road.

Reaching in to the back of my pocket I pulled out the yellow piece of note pad paper Marceline had given me.

"Lets see… 'long-lasting purple hair dye, size seven and a half boots, bow set, and always remember that when you guys get freaky after you have the special grape juice to use protection or you will get pregnant and die'. What the heck?!" I exclaimed as Maggie leaned over with wide-eyes to see if what I read was really true.

"_Okay," _I thought to myself, _"Do these Salvation sisters have some sort of weird power to sniff out what _should _be people's secret relationships or something like that? Come on!" _

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

**Samantha POV**

After my sister's choice of dyeing her hair, I went back to my tent to lay down for a bit with a book that I had gotten from the RV called _The Outsiders _by SE Hinton.

Crawling into my tent I found Shady chewing on a squirrel tail, which was not such a big surprise to me anymore. I quickly ruffled his fur, and began to lay down on my sleeping bag when I spotted my personal duffel bag.

Sticking out of it was the folder my mother had given me. I looked at it for a while, before I decided to take another look at it as I had noticed earlier that there were actually more papers in it, but at the moment I had had to help with the gun class so I didn't have time to check it out. I flipped the folder over, spilling its contents to the floor, picked up another document, and began to read…

(TWD)(TWD)(TWD)

An hour later, I was in tears yet again. In the documents I had discovered that the letter that I had read in the forest with Marceline was only a rough draft and that it had left out _very _important information about Marceline and I's… _abilities_.

Mom was the head of the genetic division at Area 52, meaning that she specialized in the whole chupacabra thing. In the first letter I read she had left out that we also had several different birds of prey in us.

The Salvation's animalistic form was going to be the strongest, fastest- pretty much the most powerful animal _ever_. And to top off the super-speed and crazy healing, we were going to have _wings_. WINGS! But to do all of this stuff, we had to have brain-surgery that would make our body activate the different animal traits. But before the doctors could give Marceline the last activation surgery, which was for the bird part, Mom finally got her reality check and stopped it from happening.

She somehow got her hands on a gas mask, and then released the same gas that they used to take away my memories of my bleed-outs into all of Area 52, which knocked them all out. While they were getting their beauty sleep she managed to destroy all the evidence of the animalistic forms. She waited until everyone at Area 52 had woken back up and used the PA system to tell them that the whole chupacabra thing never happened. They all believed it, as they gas leaves you so out-of it that you'll do anything. She probably would have had them stop the Salvation Project completely, but she didn't have time before the doctors and guard got back to normal. Minus knowing about the animalistic division of course.

Mom got Marceline and I and we tried to escape, but it was to late… for me at least. One of the guards practically popped out of nowhere, and shot me. Mom thought I died, but I was only temporarily knocked out. But she got Marceline out. Only minutes later I was gassed by Daddy Dearest and I forgot all about my Mom and sister until now, eleven years later. We're just one big happy family, now aren't we?

Suddenly, I spotted something underneath a pile of papers. Lifting them up, I found a gold locket. I hesitantly popped it open, to find a picture of what my family would have been if that guard hadn't shot me.

It was my mom, Marcey, and who I guessed was my step-dad at their wedding. My mother was a beautiful woman with long, dark golden locks wearing a simple but elegant wedding dress that fit her just perfectly. In her arms was a thick bouquet of white roses and her dark blue eyes sparkled when her face lit up with one of the happiest smiles I've ever seen as her new husband kissed her cheek.

He was a couple inches taller than Mom with short, light brown hair in a black tuxedo.

At their feet was a six-year-old Marceline looking as cute as ever with her white flower-girl dress and a white rose in the middle of her purple bow which held up her dark, wavy hair. She had blue eyes too, but they seemed slightly unnatural and I realized that she must have been wearing contacts to cover up her real golden eyes.

I snapped the locket shut, and contemplated wearing it. I wasn't much of a jewelry person, as it could get caught on something, but I finally decided to put it on.

All of a sudden, I heard a rustling outside my tent. Unzipping the tent-flap, I found Marceline holding a trash bag, but I could easily tell by it's sent that it didn't have any garbage in it.

"What've you got there?" I asked with a smile.

"Well… Um…" Marceline mumbled, trying to find the right words, "I guess I just wanted to find a way to say thank you for being a really cool and awesome sister, even though you only met me, like, yesterday… so I got you this!" she said nervously as she handed me the trash bag.

I took it hesitantly, wondering what it was. I reached my hand into it and grabbed what seemed to be some string. I brought it out to find… the laces to a pair of boots! They would easily go up to my knee, and were a dark grey-brown color with brown laces and gold buckles to make sure that they stayed on tight.

"Oh, Marceline! Thank you kiddo! You didn't have to do this you know!" I told her as I looked over the boots.

"I know. I just wanted to do something nice. Besides, there's one more thing left and I think you'll really like it!"

Reaching into the bag again, a wrapped my hands around something cold and hard, then pulled out a bow. A BOW!

"Oh my god is this a Camouflage Martin Recurve bow?!" I practically screamed.

Marcey shrugged,

"I guess. Glenn got it when he went to town with Maggie today. I heard someone say that you wanted a bow, so I decided to get you one. Do you like it?" she asked.

My response was to scoop her up in a hug and practically squeeze her to death, but when she started making choking sounds I let go.

"Of course I like it! I was going to get one, but I ran out of time before I could. Thank you so much!" I squealed in joy.

"You're welcome!" she smiled cutely, and I hugged her again.

"Uh, Sammy?" Marceline asked.

"Yeah?"

"What if I told you I may have put Glenn in a really awkward situation with Maggie?"

I smirked playfully,

"I'd laugh and let you do it again again. Dude needs a girlfriend."

Marceline rolled her eyes,

"Tell me about it!"

**Done! If you want to see some Marceline and Sam stuff then type in 'lunawolfangel polyvore' in the internet search where you can see all my polyvore creations, and I have some Sam and Marcey stuff. **

**Please review and tell me about who should play Sam! Maybe Tracy Spiridakos from Revolution? Or Sandra McCoy from Supernatural? I don't know, but I'll see you next chapter! :)**


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